Profit

Over a period of about 40 years, the Opinion Research Corporation occasionally asked:

"In [all] industries where there is competition, do you think companies should be allowed to make all [the profit] they can, or should the government put a limit on the profits companies can make? "

The results (* indicates that the question included the words in brackets).

       All they can  limit    DK

1946     61           31       8

1953     65           28       7

1955     66           28       6

1955     67           27       7

1961     62           24      14

1962     61           25      14

1963     53           32      15

1971     55           33      12

1973     48           40      12

*1975    36           55       9

*1976    39           55       6

*1977    39           55       6

*1979    34           60       6

*1981    41           51       8

*1983    43           51       6

*1986    61           31       8

Support for limits on profits rose in the 1970s and early 1980s, before dropping in 1986. The most plausible explanation of the rise is that it was a reaction to the high inflation of that time.  There seems to be no real trend over the longer term--opinions in 1986 were just like opinions in 1946--but unfortunately the question hasn't been asked since then.