20 years ago today, the Berlin Wall came crashing down, taking with it the communist regimes that haunted Eastern Europe during the 20th century. World leaders are gathering in Germany’s capital to commemorate the reunification of Germany and the end of the Cold War.
Of course, the fall of the Wall has come to symbolize more than a political and military win for the West. It also represents the idea that free markets work better than planned socialist economies.
However, a new global poll has found that today’s recession has many doubting pure capitalism.
According to pollster Doug Miller, “It appears that the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 may not have been the crushing victory for free-market capitalism that it seemed at the time — particularly after the events of the last 12 months.”
Here are the poll’s key findings:
Only 11 percent of people surveyed across 27 countries thought free market capitalism is working well, while 51 percent believed its problems can be solved with more regulation and reform, the poll said.
In only the United States (25 percent) and Pakistan (21 percent), did more than one in five people agree that capitalism works well in its current form, the poll conducted for the BBC World Service said.
A majority now believe free-market capitalism doesn’t really work. Were the eulogies over socialism’s demise premature? Share your predictions below.
