70% want free enterprise, 54% want more govt control. That means the job is simply to convince those 16% that the free enterprise they want cannot be achieve with more but only with less government control of enterprise. That's job one. I think that's achievable.

Sorry, the productive people in this country are already serfs. No one can deny that we are currently living the Marxist principle of From Each According To His Ability, To Each According To His Need. That is what "tax the rich" is all about. Taking from the "able" to give to the people who "need"; Sec8 housing, subsidized mortgages, food stamps, medicaid, free school lunches, and on and on.

Maybe this is how the "slay the dragon" stories got started. Government has become a ravenous monster of huge proportions. We don't need to slay the beast but we damn sure need to put it on a diet and send it to obedience school...

Some of the poorest countries in the world have full employment... it is standard of living that ultimately takes the brunt of a massive, welfare/warfare/fiat currency state.

In truth, Mr Stossel, I think you're both on target. America is divided. Some say the country is divided in two -- Right vs Left (really right vs wrong). Evan Sayet and many others believe it's really divided in three: Right, Left and a variable middle that sometimes leans one way and sometimes the other.

Most of the country consistently comes down on the side of free markets, independence and personal responsibility. That's remarkable, since the Left controls the mainstream media, the entire federal government, academia at every level, and the entire entertainment industry including movies, music and publishing. Those institutions militate quite heavily in favor of Marxist approaches to every phase of society and the economy. With firepower like that, it's surprising that most Americans still prefer free markets.

Yet they do. Even the fickle middle usually leans right-of-center. That seems mysterious to some observers, but that's because they do not understand Capitalism. They take the "proctologist's view" of free market economics, seeing only the bad and ignoring the overwhelming good. Everyone else already knows why most people prefer Capitalism: it WORKS.

I don't remember who said it, but someone famously quipped: "Capitalism is the worst economic system in the world -- except for all the others." I've always felt that, while that's factually correct, it's a rhetorical loser because it dismisses all the amazing, overwhelming good we get from Capitalism. Free markets are a big, stinky, sweaty, profane mess that nevertheless works marvelously because it relies on people doing what's best because they WANT to. Contrast that with Socialism which fails because it depends upon people doing what is right because they're told to -- the first question they ask is, "what's in it for me?" and the answer is, "nothing."

I agree. When the wall came down on the USSR, the people, as a whole, after seventy years of communism were unable to think or act for themselves. The ones that prospered were those that came out of the black market and mafia organizations under the communist rule, for they were as close to entrepreneurs as the USSR had during those years. Even today, almost twenty years latter, as a whole they are slow to pull out of the government provides mentality.

The republic was engineered to be for the people by the people. We are truly losing our way.

Thank you for your honest insights.

"Any principle which secures food to the individual without the expenditure of work is injurious, and accompanied by the degeneration and loss of parts."..Henry Drummond 1892 Does it cause loss of spirituality in mankind?

"Any principle which secures the safety of the individual without personal effort or the vital exercise of faculty is disastrous to the moral character." ...Henry Drummond 1892 Do we really learn from history?

Misery and Suffering (poverty) is directly proportional to the funds set aside for its relief. Entitlements are causing people to become parasitic and will destroy the host! Let's not let our congressmen continue buying goodwill. The greatest charity is to give a person a good job and yes work is honorable. Let's also stop them from receiving entitlements voted for themselves only. Maybe they are the parasites? Let's clear foggy bottom? How? November 2010!