Monday, April 11, 2011

Capitalists vs Anti-Capitalists

This is very true... being an immigrant I have seen this in US of A (and this is theme of one of Jonathan Haidt's research too). May be anti-captilists get lost in abstracts (Africa, Animals, Nature et al) while capitalist are more into quantified altruism (Church, small town close knit communities et al). For the record, if its not obvious yet, bought up in quasi-socialistic India made me pro-capitalist and grew-up being aware of its limitations as well. As usual, an excellent piece via Tyler Cowen:

"
In a recent paper, James Lindgren of Northwestern reports:
…compared to anti-redistributionists, strong redistributionists have about two to three times higher odds of reporting that in the prior seven days they were angry, mad at someone, outraged, sad, lonely, and had trouble shaking the blues. Similarly, anti-redistributionists had about two to four times higher odds of reporting being happy or at ease. Not only do redistributionists report more anger, but they report that their anger lasts longer. When asked about the last time they were angry, strong redistributionists were more than twice as likely as strong opponents of leveling to admit that they responded to their anger by plotting revenge. Last, both redistributionists and anti-capitalists expressed lower overall happiness, less happy marriages, and lower satisfaction with their financial situations and with their jobs or housework.
Further, in the 2002 and 2004 General Social Surveys anti-redistributionists were generally more likely to report altruistic behavior. In particular, those who opposed more government redistribution of income were much more likely to donate money to charities, religious organizations, and political candidates. The one sort of altruistic behavior that the redistributionists were more likely to engage in was giving money to a homeless person on the street."

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