whakahekeheke

(As I’ve said here before, “capitalism” is a broken word and I avoid it for that reason and think most everyone else should too. However I am not an anti-capitalist and I argue that what most people call anti-capitalism is irrational and counterproductive.)

So who is anti-capitalism?

Quick answer: people who are in favor of increasing state-forced redistribution of wealth.  …But what kind of people tend to be in favor this?

Well, the sociologist James Lindgren, currently professor at Northwestern University, has a forthcoming article that comprehensively reviews all the evidence on exactly that question: “What Drives Views on Government Redistribution and Anti-capitalism?”

Inter alia, people who are anti-capitalism and pro-government redistribution are:

• less educated
• less likely to give anything to charity
• less likely to engage in altruistic behavior
• less likely to support free speech
• more racist
• more intolerant of gays
• more intolerant of atheists
• more angry, revengeful, and pessimistic

To quote Lindgren’s conclusion [emphasis mine]:

Those who support capitalism and freer markets and oppose greater income redistribution tend to be better educated, to have higher family incomes, to be less traditionally racist, and to be less intolerant of unpopular groups. Those who oppose greater redistribution also tend to be more generous in donating to charities and more likely to engage in some other altruistic behavior.

These sociological statistics are not themselves arguments for free markets (“capitalism”) or against statist redistribution, however they do give plausible insight into the social psychological motivations of anti-capitalists. And they’re interesting!