ABSTRACT
American economists are fiscally conservative but socially liberal, the latter trait apparent in the collective attitude toward same-sex marriage which 79 percent of the economist in the survey supported, the highest among the six academic groups surveyed, with Philosophy a distant second at 36 percent. Besides the sheer number of economists, oblique yet meaningful indicators of the scope and magnitude of the discipline in America are the country's plethora of associations related to the subject, and the volume of research and publications in the field. The one-sidedness in the philosophical leaning of economists is not apparent in their political preferences as registered in a 2007 survey of 1,097 academics from 26 disciplines. English language and culture certainly shaped the development of American economic thought especially during the colonial era when a majority of literate persons in the country communicated in English. There was also the subliminal impact of indigenous thought and practices on American economic behavior and thinking.
