The majority of people (in the US, at least) spend half a day a week being taught to believe in magic. From birth. Usually on Sunday.

I'll be provocative here, and say that a big chunk of Americans have replaced religion with the fairy tale of Marxism. Both have a lot in common:

1. no evidence that it works

2. canon

3. heresy

4. excommunication ("cancelled")

5. no verifiable predictions

Are you one of those people who think that regular modern capitalist societies with any kind of social safety net or publicly funded healthcare are communism?

There's a continuum between free markets and communism. It's not either-or.

But the more to the left the economy goes, the less prosperous it is, and there is a point when it comes unglued.

Just be careful that “prosperous” is actually the metric you care about and that you some sane way of measuring said prosperity as it applies to everyone.

For myself as a Canadian, I can see that America is more “prosperous” in the sense that the averages look good, but I’ll take my socialized medicine and higher education thank you very much.

It's hard to ignore the astounding success of the free market when it's applied.

The immigrants to the US were pretty much people with nothing but a suitcase. With the American free market, the country rose from subsistence farming to superpower. Scores of millions of people were lifted out of poverty into the middle class and beyond.

Even well-funded and widely-supported notions, projects, and institutions prove to be mere facades when we demand evidence and verifiable predictability.

So to actually be provocative, I suggest that we set aside theoretical economic constructs and mention the hypothesis of Democracy itself.

Government itself becomes the consensus of the wealthy. And for any lesser hysteria, we can consider the uncomfortable lessons described in "Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds". [1]

[1] _ https://www.gutenberg.org/files/24518/24518-h/24518-h.htm

Hey criticizing this is heresy on hn!

I know. Being in favor of free markets isn't popular.

Its not about economics (at least on the surface) but a belief system that has transformed into a religion even when most won't admit or realize it.

This is such a lazy take Walter. Almost literally everyone here is in favour of free markets, just not completely unregulated ones.

A free market requires a government that will enforce laws against fraud and force. Government also plays a role in dealing with externalities. A free market is not "completely unregulated".

> Almost literally everyone here is in favour of free markets

How does that fit in with single payer health care, rent control, universal basic income, calls for wealth taxes, calls to eliminate wealth "inequality", government football stadiums, government deciding who can play on sports teams, government funded TV, Amtrak, and, of course, the ever-increasing taxes?

Universal basic income is about replacing government health care with free markets.

That's a novel interpretation of it. I've never seen anyone advocate that.

Hardly novel. I see lots of libertarians and conservatives advocating replacing most government spending (and beauracracy!) with UBI.

The conservative economist Milton Friedman advocated for UBI in the form of a negative income tax.

> replacing most government spending (and beauracracy!) with UBI

UBI and free health care are fundamentally different.

> UBI in the form of a negative income tax

That's not UBI. UBI is everyone gets the same sum from the government.

I love the notion perpetuated by American god botherers that Marx and Jesus do not occupy the exact same circle in the “economic policies” Venn diagram. Given the low uptake of Marxism in the US (either real or that which is imagined by the US right) I would suggest your hypothesis would have more evidence behind it if you replaced Marxism with current US crony capitalism and rent-seeking behavior.

I don't see a connection between crony capitalism and rent-seeking, and religion. See the list of common characteristics I listed between religion and marxism.

It's a clear planetary majority. There is no consensus about the indoctrination day per se. Not participating is punishable in many regions.

"The five largest religious groups by world population, estimated to account for 5.8 billion people and 84% of the population, are Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism (with the relative numbers for Buddhism and Hinduism dependent on the extent of syncretism), and traditional folk religions."

"The five largest religious groups by world population, estimated to account for 5.8 billion people and 84% of the population, are Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism (with the relative numbers for Buddhism and Hinduism dependent on the extent of syncretism), and traditional folk religions."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion#Demographic_classific...

It’s down to 30% in the US; it was over 40% twenty years ago:

https://news.gallup.com/poll/642548/church-attendance-declin...

Wow, today I learned.

I'm gratified to see that the lizardman coefficient is consistent. In the chart, 2% of "None/Atheist/Agnostic" apparently attends religious services every week.

I know of people who go to church for social reasons, but are complete non-believers.

My brother and I used to take our grandmother to church for Easter mass, and a friend of mine goes once a month with his wife's family, despite all three of us being atheists. I really don't think that 2% is guaranteed to be polling error, as Lizardman's Constant would suggest.