U.S. lost the war in Vietnam, but capitalism was the winner

As Americans mark 50 years since the final days of U.S. involvement in Vietnam, the sting of that war may be more painful knowing this: 60,000+ American soldiers died fighting the spread of communism but Vietnam today enjoys a thriving, increasingly capitalist economy.
In fact, Ezra Klein of Vox pulled out a 2014 international poll that found the Vietnamese favor capitalism more than any other nation surveyed.
The poll by Pew Research found that 95 percent of Vietnamese are for the free market, and only 3 percent are against it. Those incredibly lopsided results came about when Pew asked survey respondents: Are most people better off in a free-market economy even if some are rich and some are poor?

That question was asked of people in dozens of countries by Pew and not only was Vietnam more pro-capitalist than the United States, so was China. As Klein points out, only 18 percent of Chinese doubt the free market is better, while 25 percent of Americans do.

In fact, the “emerging economies” that have roughly as much faith in free markets as the U.S., despite income disparities, include places such Thailand, South Africa, Pakistan and Venezuela – the most recent country to suffer greatly at the hands of socialism.
Among developing countries, Bangladesh, once one of the poorest nations on Earth, has a more pro-capitalist outlook than the U.S.
Which brings us to the very libertarian views among some of these nations who have struggled in the past with widespread poverty.

Not only do the people in many of the overwhelmingly pro-capitalist countries express great optimism that their children will enjoy better living conditions than they do, they reject the idea that taxing the rich to help the poor is the way to go.

When Pew researchers asked about the best ways for government to solve inequality, they found strong support for hands-off approach -- keeping taxes low on the wealthy and corporations. In half of the 44 countries surveyed, respondents said low taxes to encourage investment and economic growth was a more effective means of reducing inequality than focusing on government help for the poor.
In fact, people living in the most prosperous, advanced economies were more supportive of taxing the rich to aid the poor than the emerging and poor nations.