Fox News Poll: Three in 10 voters view socialism positively

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Capitalism beats socialism by a two-to-one margin in the latest Fox News Poll.

By a 26-point spread, voters have a more positive than negative view of capitalism (56 favorable - 30 unfavorable).

The opposite holds true for socialism, where sentiment is net negative by 30 points (28 favorable - 58 unfavorable).

CLICK HERE TO READ THE POLL RESULTS

That’s almost exactly where things stood a year ago, despite the popularity of Sen. Bernie Sanders', I-Vt., presidential campaign.

The Democratic presidential frontrunner says “billionaires should not exist,” yet 76 percent of voters overall and 67 percent of Democrats think it’s a good thing people can become billionaires in the United States.

For many though, there are limits.  Voters agree by a 56-35 percent margin the government “should increase taxes on the wealthiest individuals so that nobody gets to be too rich.”  A decade ago, it was the reverse: 40 percent favored increased taxes and 55 percent disagreed.

Billionaires, generically, garner somewhat negative ratings in the poll (35 favorable - 44 unfavorable).  Mere millionaires are a bit more popular (41 favorable - 39 unfavorable).  One in five voters is unable to give an opinion of either millionaires or billionaires.

Views among groups

Twice as many Democrats (40 percent) as Republicans (15 percent) feel positively about socialism.

Republicans (67 percent) are more likely than Democrats (50 percent) to have a favorable view of capitalism.

Men are 26 points more likely than women to have a favorable view of capitalism (70 vs. 44 percent).  That gender gap disappears on socialism, as roughly equal numbers of men (29 percent) and women (27 percent) feel positively.

Voters ages 65 and over are far more likely than those under age 35 to like capitalism (72 vs. 44 percent), and young voters are more than twice as likely as seniors to have a favorable view of socialism (35 vs. 16 percent).

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Democratic primary voters who back Sanders in the nomination race have a net positive view of socialism by 17 points (49 favorable - 32 unfavorable), and a net negative view of capitalism (by 15 points) and billionaires (by 59 points).  Some 74 percent of Sanders’ supporters have an unfavorable opinion of billionaires.

Conducted February 23-26, 2020 under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company (R), this Fox News Poll includes interviews with 1,000 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide who spoke with live interviewers on both landlines and cellphones.  The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points for all registered voters.