Recognize social security and Medicare as socialist and it goes to 99/100
Try criticizing social security/Medicare here and you will quickly find out how many socialists there are on this site!
You took the words right out of my mouth. 40% is laughably low.
6 in 10 Americans reject all forms of socialism. But guess which demographic gets all the press?
Don’t mention changing Social Security around here—if you want to see a bunch of old, red neck conservatives turn into a Bolshevik mob—mention reducing Old Age pensions and benefits.
You will hear a chorus of, “We earned this...” When in reality, they get back almost 100% of the money they put in after three or four years.
It comes down to semantics and how you phrase things. If you use the narrow definition of Socialism as an economic system where the state owns most of the means of production, then 1% of Americans support socialism. If you define Socialism as any state transfer of wealth from one class of people to another (including SS and Medicare), then 99% support this type of "Socialism" (though I would argue that welfare state capitalism is fundamentally different from state socialism because it doesn't eliminate the profit motive from work and enterprise).
To take a less extreme example, if you poll people and ask them if they support Bernie Sanders' proposal of Medicare for all, a majority might say yes. If you tell the same people that it would mean giving up their private insurance, a majority would say no.
I read the estimate that over 50% of Americans are on the govt teet so why would we expect sound frugal leadership at the top?....politicos know who butters their bread