Reclaiming Capitalism’s Promise
Gallup, 2025
A recent Gallup poll released on September 8, 2025, revealed a stark drop in Americans’ esteem for capitalism with just 54% now holding it in favorable regard, the lowest since the survey’s inception. Sympathy for big business, once peaking above 50%, has now plummeted to 37% with Democrats, for the first time, viewing socialism more favorably than capitalism.
Support remains strong for small business and free enterprise, which command approval above 80%. One theory for this divergence is that Americans are not rejecting markets nor entrepreneurship, and instead, they are reacting to a distorted picture of capitalism shaped by distrust of institutions and elite mismanagement.
Why the numbers fell
As mentioned above, this Gallup poll does not signal a collapse of belief in the markets; however, the frustration lies with how capitalism has been practiced and portrayed. Americans are responding to failures of integrity, not failures of principle. Four forces explain the shift.
The first of these is corporate misconduct that corrodes trust. High-profile scandals and rent-seeking behaviors have blurred the distinction between genuine value creation and exploitation. For instance, the collapse of FTX in 2022 and the subsequent conviction of Sam Bankman-Fried became a parable of moral bankruptcy. It was fraud wrapped in the rhetoric of innovation. This reinforced the view that modern capitalism rewards manipulation over merit. Similarly, Boeing’s 737 MAX crisis, tied to cost-cutting and compromised safety oversight, symbolized what happens when shareholder primacy eclipses ethical stewardship. These episodes taught the public to conflate capitalism with recklessness, when in fact they represent its violation.
A second force is the economic dislocation that blurs opportunity. Inflation, rising housing costs, and student debt have left younger Americans skeptical that the system works for them. The perception deepened after pandemic-era windfalls for corporations and asset holders, while wage growth for average workers lagged. When the Dow hit record highs but groceries and rent became unaffordable, the rhetoric of “prosperity” rang hollow. Capitalism’s legitimacy wanes when access to its rewards feels exclusive.
Third is the narrative capture by cultural elites. Mainstream discourse now frames capitalism as extractive and amoral - a framing repeated across academia, entertainment, and political commentary. Major streaming platforms and university programs routinely depict entrepreneurs as villains and “profit” as a moral failing. The influence is subtle but pervasive. When generations are taught that wealth is zero-sum, aspiration recedes.
Last, is a visible contract between local virtue and corporate distance. Americans still admire their neighbourhood restaurant, their local manufacturer, their family-owned construction firm. These are tangible embodiments of free enterprise: accountable, personal, and value-creating. By contrast, megacorporations often appear detached. The Disney-Florida dispute and similar corporate political entanglements blurred the line between enterprise and activism, alienating both sides of the ideological spectrum. The result is resentment not toward capitalism itself, but toward institutions that seem to have lost commercial focus.
These examples all clarify the poll’s message that Americans have not abandoned capitalism, and they still believe in free enterprise. They are demanding that it once again reward ingenuity, accountability, and integrity. And, they simply need to be reminded what authentic capitalism looks like.
This is precisely the vacuum that Liberty Ventures and Principled Business seek to fill: by reconnecting capitalism to its moral and entrepreneurial roots.
Principled Business: Reclaiming the Story
Founded in 2023 by Alexander McCobin, Principled Business’ mission is to build the ecosystem of investors, executives, and founders who create value, and advance the principles of capitalism - to Bring Capitalism Back by linking integrity, investment, and storytelling.
This network of more than 20,000 members forms a living demonstration of capitalism’s creative energy. For instance, of the hundreds of productive connections monthly, 80% lead to meetings and 13% to tangible business relationships, proving this network is a marketplace of collaboration rather than slogans.
Through its Capitalists for Capitalism magazine, global summits, and podcasts, Liberty Ventures elevates real stories of principled entrepreneurship. It reinforces the message that the world’s most transformative technologies emerge from the free exchange of ideas and capital. And through programs like investor pitch days, accelerators, workshops, storytelling labs, and peer cohorts, it trains emerging leaders to build successful ventures and to defend capitalism within their ventures and on behalf of capitalism itself.
A Path Forward
The Gallup findings should not be read as an obituary for capitalism. They are a warning that the system’s moral credibility is eroding, even as its material success endures. Therefore, the way forward is for capitalism’s defenders to demonstrate its benefits through lived examples, for investors to recognize the ventures that embody innovation with integrity. Additionally, entrepreneurs must be willing to embrace being the face of capitalism instead of allowing faceless institutions to take that role. And above all, the public must be shown that capitalism, when rightly practiced, remains the most powerful engine of human progress ever devised.
Liberty Ventures models precisely this path with its commitment to tangible storytelling and its mobilization of its network devoted to being capitalism’s best face. By aligning capital with conscience, it cultivates ambassadors, each a living rebuttal to the cynics.
The polling data showed a public starved of trust, clarity, and proof. Thus the solution is not a retreat from capitalism but rather, an encouragement of its renaissance. The mission now is clear: reclaim the narrative, and with it, the future of American prosperity. Bring Capitalism Back.
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