The Occupy Movement likes to
market itself as a global awakening, a spontaneous reaction to
capitalism’s implicit unfairness and corruption. Of course the
movement turned out to be a western oriented whine-fest from those
who were middle class enough to have the time and resources to
designate themselves the spokespeople of the victims of
capitalism.

In North America and Western Europe the Occupy movement’s
favorite target is the banks and financial services who supposedly
caused the crash of 2007. 

While amongst the whining and bitching middle class that created
the Occupy movement it is fashionable to blame banks and financial
services for the economic situation, this attitude is far less
prevalent that the Occupyers would like you to think.

A recent study from the Pew Research Center shows that
ninety-two percent of Indians blame the government for their
economic situation, while only seventeen percent blame banks or
financial institutions. Ninety one percent of Mexicans and Japanese
also claim that the government is the primary or secondary culprit
responsible for economic hardship.

From
Pew: 

Among those who think the economy is doing poorly, people in 16
of 21 countries fault their own government, some overwhelmingly so.
Particularly angry at their leadership are the Pakistanis (95%
blame the government as a primary or secondary culprit), Indians
(92%), the Mexicans (91%), the Japanese (91%), the Czechs (91%) and
the Poles (90%).

Young people in Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Tunisia,
Mexico, Brazil and Japan tend to blame the government. And in
Britain, France and the Czech Republic, women are more likely than
men to blame the government for the economic crisis.

One of the most revealing parts of the study is the measurements
of attitudes towards capitalism across the world. Between 2007 and
2012 the number of people in the United States who believed that
the statement “Most people are better off in a free market economy”
was either “completely true” or “mostly true” fell from seventy
percent to sixty-seven percent. The biggest measured drop in
confidence in capitalism was in Italy where confidence in
capitalisms ability to make people better off fell from seventy
three percent to fifty percent. Surprisingly, one of the only two
countries to have an increased confidence in capitalism is
socialist-led France. 

While it is not surprising that attitudes towards capitalism
have shifted since the 2007 crash, some might be surprised about
who is getting the blame for the current economic
situation.