By Grant Terwilliger
Capitalism is described as an economic system in which a country’s trade and industry are driven by private ownership of property for profit. People’s perceptions on the economy stem from their own experiences with the world around them.
Kylie King, director of institutional effectiveness at SUNY Plattsburgh, gave a presentation at the Plattsburgh Public Library on the similarities and differences between generations in regard to their feelings on capitalism Oct. 2.
King has been working on a research project since 2021 that includes collecting responses from different populations of people to better understand how to navigate democracy and capitalism.
“We think this is important to look at as the way that people feel about themselves and the way that they approach the world is related to how we think about the economy, how they think about business ownership, how they think about participation,” King said.
King’s research project includes two surveys that have been running for a couple of years. One of them — “Confidence in Capitalism” — allows business leaders to understand the generation that is entering the workforce and their ideals.
“When we think about the traits and the personality and the opinions and values that young people are bringing forward into the workplace, into the economy, it seems like they are getting more certain,” King said.
The second survey that King conducted over the last three years was the “Capitalism Barometer” survey, which collected data from American adults 18 and above and asked them about their perceptions of capitalism.
The respondents were sorted into categories of detractors, who are unlikely to support capitalism; passives, who are likely to support capitalism; and promoters, who are extremely likely to support capitalism.
Not all of the groups can argue their positions on capitalism equally.
“Something that I actually found really interesting was that promoters of capitalism were more confident in explaining its benefits than detractors were in explaining its drawbacks,” King said.
When respondents were asked about the free market, most people felt that the free market and private property were important aspects of the capitalist system.
When asked whether in a democracy everyone has the right to be an entrepreneur, the responses were pretty consistent with over 90% of people agreeing that everyone has the right to be an entrepreneur.
King’s research project seeks to provide information to business owners on the ideals that people seek in job opportunities and the overall differences between how different generations see the economic system in America.
“My goals are in understanding differences and feelings within and between generations, and then hopefully through this process, explaining that to you,” King said. “Not to pass judgment on ‘Are Millennials self-focused?’ not to pass judgment on ‘Is capitalism evil?’”
