In a Huanqiu op-ed, a commentator analyzed why Americans' confidence in capitalism is falling, citing widening income and wealth inequality as the core factor.

Polls have shown rising skepticism toward the market economy, especially among the young; housing, student-loan and medical burdens weaken the belief that 'effort pays off.'

Falling confidence in capitalism, however, does not automatically translate into support for an alternative system; debate over the direction of reform continues.

Confidence in a system rests not only on the growth rate but on the fairness of distribution and the reality of opportunity.

Sinophone Bridge Times reads economic discourse through people's lived sense, not the language of ideology; the question of trust begins in life beyond the statistics.