MARK PENN: The midterms revealed a nation of unhappy capitalists. Here's the cure

America is suffering from having too many unhappy capitalists.Indeed, in the Fox News poll of voters, 75% said the economy was not so good or poor.And 44% said their economic conditions were deteriorating rather than improving.America is a nation obsessed with and reeling from increases in the cost of living.

It is a bit odd because inflation has come down from 9% a year under President Biden to about 3% a year under President Trump, while economic growth and employment are excellent by any normal standard.We even have the lowest poverty rate in American history.

And yet people are unhappy, and on Tuesday they voted for the people who were responsible for the lion’s share of inflation and who spent 10 years and $2 trillion on measures designed to increase the cost of gasoline and other fossil fuels.FOX NEWS POLL: SQUEEZED BY COSTS, FRUSTRATED VOTERS TURN TO THE DEMOCRATSAnd they also elected six new members of the Democratic Socialists of America to Congress this week, bringing their total to at least eight members advancing radical economic redistribution.But when socialism was directly on the ballot on November 3, it failed.The California wealth tax, which would start a new era of taxation on wealth — a direct confiscation of property — went down in flames, with 57% or more rejecting it.RADICAL SOCIALIST WING'S HUGE NIGHT REVEALS ASCENDING CLOUT WITHIN DEMOCRATIC PARTYAnd in that same Fox News poll, 56% of respondents viewed capitalism favorably and 32% unfavorably.

For socialism, 33% viewed it favorably and 53% unfavorably; the rest didn’t know enough to say.Deep down, most of these socialists are really just capitalists drafted into a movement they know little about, fed by a stream of TikTok videos.So, capitalism had a 23-point net advantage in favorability.When asked in another Fox News poll whether moving the U.S.

away from capitalism toward socialism would be good or bad, 38% said good and 61% said bad.LEE CARTER: SOCIALISM MEANS TWO WILDLY DIFFE...