I'm not into politics, is this correct about liberals and conservatives?

Question

I work with a seemingly intelligent co-worker who is in to political current events, unlike me. I asked what was the difference between liberals and conservatives and he told him his opinion. (For the record he is a liberal and I am definitely leaning towards liberal)

Liberal- Wants more government control in capitalist market and redistribution of wealth from the rich to the lower classes. This can be argued as socialist, but can also be described as compassion. (Conservatives will state that this isn't a free country anymore and that people are lazy and blah blah) If I had the spare money I wouldn't mind it being taken, under the right circumstances. (Strict rules and prerequisites: the person needs to be finding a job to support himself, is in true need of help, etc.)

Conservative- Supports free market, little government intervention-- "Let them do." Ultimate form of freedom for a "free" country, yet fails to recognize the potential tyranny that the rich will impose over the poor. Conservatives state that given the chance to grow it means more workforce, a trickle-down effect for the proletarians, yet said they outsource their workforce to sweatshops for low wages. No such thing as compassionate conservatives.

As you can probably tell, this is biased. Set me straight in my ignorance and explain to me why conservatives need the time of day to be listened to? They seem to only care about themselves and their ridiculous ideals of a "traditional" America.

Answer 1

I wish it was all that simple. but the truth is sometimes the Liberals make more sense and sometimes the Conservatives make more sense. As citizens we have the responsibility to judge each issue on it's own merits. As an example, someone could think that abortion is wrong, but favor more regulation of capitalism. Another could be pro-choice but think that there is too much government regulation of businesses. It's possible to be a Conservative on one issue and a Liberal on another.

Answer 2

Yes you are a little bias, some of it you have right. I don't fail to recognize the potential tyranny that the rich can impose over the poor. Contrary to what the media wants people to believe the majority of this country, no matter what political party are decent people. Tyranny and ever other bad trait will always exist. Most rich do not take advantage of the poor. They pay fair wages for services rendered and it is not the fault of the well off if a person has chosen the wrong path and is lacking for his own decisions. The rich also give to charities that help the truly needy, and promote arts and other good causes in society.



Jobs are not outsourced to sweatshops because they desire only profit. Many in this country are too educated to desire such jobs that require monotonous repeticious tasks. There are always jobs out there, that go unfilled. To think that conservatives are not compassionate or patriotic is wrong. Business is business, and if they do not control expenses, they themselves put their our financial situation at risk, and a business owner their company an the financial stability of those that they employ.



There will always be a middle class, the middle is the middle, some will make more and some less and there will be the average.



There will alway be a left and a right in politics and a middle their also.



Society and politics even function on a bell curve of sorts.



If you do away with the super rich and for argument say it is those who make more than $1,000,000 a year, and redistribute to the extremely impoverished, say, those making less than $5,000 a year,



tomorrow the super rich are those making 900,000 a year

and the poor are those making 7,500



and so on and so on until everything is equal,,



and with that society stops, there is no incentive to better for yourself, and no punishment for doing nothing as all.



you cannot help an individual that does not help themself.

Answer 3

I'll let complete liberals tell you what they think. I'm a liberal when it comes to some things and conservative when it comes to others. But I'll try and give you my stand where I disagree with your firends definition of what a conservative believes.



-Conservative- Supports free market, little government intervention-- "Let them do."



When this country got started the pilgrims came here and the indians weren't hireing. If they wanted to survive they had to work for what they got. There was no employment office or medical facilities anywhere. And I believe your friend is confusing conservatives with capitalists.



-Ultimate form of freedom for a "free" country, yet fails to recognize the potential tyranny that the rich will impose over the poor.



Where is this tyranny I'm hearing about. This country abolished slavery long ago. There is no tyrant that can say off with their head. Being rich or poor is a relative term. 99% of the poor in this country are richer than many of the rich in other countries.



-Conservatives state that given the chance to grow it means more workforce,



HMMM. Sounds more like a capitalist than a conservative to me. Just the opposite is reality. If business could make product without a human work force they would be estatic. Labor costs are a major expense. When machines do the majority of the work they may be more costly on the front end but pay back in the long run.



-a trickle-down effect for the proletarians, yet said they outsource their workforce to sweatshops for low wages.



*LOL* I'm always hearing about how trickle down is bad for the workers. But what is the alternative? The biggest problems GM, Chrysler, and Ford have is the cost of their work force. That's why they have problems and Toyota, KIA, Nissan, Honda, and others are doing well and the "BIG Three" are dying. the proletariate-



(which by definition --1: the laboring class ; especially : the class of industrial workers who lack their own means of production and hence sell their labor to live

2: the lowest social or economic class of a community)



-have priced themselves out of a job. It's not just a US economy any more. It's a world economy. And the proletariate in this country have to compete with a proletariate in every other country in the world. And the US ones are the rich ones. There is a huge disparity between the wages in the US and elsewhere in the world. So who's overpaid and who's underpaid?



-No such thing as compassionate conservatives.



Maybe, maybe not. But one things for sure. Capitalism survives, socialism stagnates, and communism fails over time.

Answer 4

Liberals ponder these questions from the comforts provided by the wealthiest nation the world has ever known. What has provided that wealth and comfort? Capitalism, people happily working for their own good and in the process creating an absolute wonderland of freedom and wealth.



Liberals always assume a basis of personal comfort in their desires to "spread the wealth". They don't mind paying a bit more if it'll help their fellow man as long as they still have the car, the air conditioned apartment, the iphone, the internet, Starbucks, cable TV with 300 channels and the annual trek to Cabo never understanding (or recognizing) with the utter destruction of wealth that socialism brings those things will be a distant memory as we will no longer be able to "afford" them.



The big problem is most liberals have no idea how capitalism and wealth actually work. They say I'm not rich but not rich in America means an entirely different thing that being "not rich" in 95% of the rest of the world. Government control destroys wealth, open your eyes, what is life actually like in China, North Korea and Cuba? Yet you think it'll be "different" when we do it. The funniest (saddest) thing will be when you go down to the Obama Health Center and Reeducation Facility for that free heart valve replacement, we won't be able to afford to give it to you.



You need to get out of the liberal bubble and see how the world really works beginning with why you want to destroy the most successful economic system the world has ever known.

Answer 5

You express concern about the tyranny of the rich over the poor. My guess is that part of that opposition stems from how small a percentage the "rich" are in society. Therefore, let's call your concern a tyranny of the minority.

How is it that a tyranny of the minority is a bad thing if it means people remain poor, but it's ok when it prohibits business from creating jobs? Why is it ok for the use of our own resources like oil and coal in a time of economic downturn and international instability? Why is it ok to impose the will of a certain community (LGBT) upon a majority of society not accepting of it?

What I think you truly speak of is class warfare. I think my problem understanding class warfare is I really don't want what "the rich" have. Funny thing though; when I show I work hard, don't complain about my life, and share a common interest, these "rich people" usually seem to find a way to enrich my life without me demanding, or even asking, that they do so. I've seen a lot of hockey games I otherwise would not have been able to attend had it not been for the generosity of such people I have come across in my work life. There are also other such things I have received as a result of just doing my job as best as I can.

You say if you had the extra money you wouldn't mind it being taken. That attitude will get your money taken with or without prerequisites.

Answer 6

Years ago it was different, conservatives did actually think they could have smaller government, less interference in private lives.

Goldwater was the father of the movement and when he died a new bunch came in with more and more of a religious agenda, and less and less of the old plans. We had Reagan and two Bush's, both on the conservative ideal, but they all had more government, and more taxes, and more interference with private personal decisions, they sought to interject a specific morality into law, one based on religion, rather than secular beliefs.

This change brought about the term Neocon to distinguish it from old-style conservatism, which did not have to face the issues we have now. For one thing, health care was affordable and available.

I don't understand so many of the people here who are more afraid of spending their money on the occasional hypochondriac, than allowing a young mother to get a mammogram.

Nor do I understand many of the nasty assumptions made about poor people, they are human, they do work, they are not lazy at all, we are all for the most part only a month away from being one of them should our paychecks stop, and many of those paychecks have stopped.

You need to listen to conservatives because they are part of the political landscape, you need to know what they have planned when they get up there and tell you how your grandma doesn't need to have Social Security. That she should put it into the market, aren't we all glad that one didn't get traction?



Ally has it right, she feels she can't convince you that conservativism is in YOUR own best interests, and to a conservative thats whats important, themselves, no one else, just them.

To a liberal, its whats in everyones best interests, not just his own, but the broader scope.

Answer 7

You said it yourself: IF you had the spare money. But what if you don't? Those type of policies get put into place and they take it anyway. Socialists want a guaranteed SOCIAL wage for every adult. Not every WORKING adult. Every ADULT. The end result of socialism is that everybody is poor. You tax companies and big business that badly, they go overseas. Then where will the rest of us work? You WANT the government telling you what to do, where to work, what you can and can't do? That is what Socialism is. In fact, Socialism, as defined by Karl Marx is not even a real goal; it's just a stepping stone to ease a society into Communism.



It doesn't really matter anyway. Your mind is quite obviously made up already. You don't even know the difference between the two and yet you are still insulting Conservatives. I'm not a Conservative. Not a Liberal, either. I don't see the point in pointless hate. You know nothing about it but you're sure it's wrong.



Wtf's up with that?

EDIT: You don't seem to get it. You say you don't advocate "free money for nothing." You don't seem to understand that IT WON'T BE UP TO YOU. It isn't going to matter what you want. The government will take your money and give it to whoever they want. The capitalist system is the most fair: you get EXACTLY what you deserve.

Answer 8

Most liberals in my opinion have no respect for traditional values. The very values upon which this nation was founded. They want to redefine everything. When possible they will attempt to lobby politicians to create laws that will overturn other laws that are already well established. The ACLU and anyone supporting its agenda is a very good example. Under the guise of giving the little guy a "fair shake", the liberal sets about to turn right into wrong, black into white, up into down. Generally cause society to be in a constant upheaval. Societal peace is the farthest thing from what they want. You see before you today the results of a liberal government takeover of our traditional America.

Answer 9

Redistribution of wealth is more of a communist term than a socialist one.



Capitalism creates ambition to work harder to get ahead.



It is absolutely untrue that conservatives are not compassionate. We would just rather give to charity as we are led, rather than have the government decide how and where and what to give. Republicans have been reported to give more than Democrats.



Democrats would rather give our money away in the form of higher taxes. Check the open tax records of the politicians.



I was just curious when you said if you had any spare money. My husband and I give charitably off the top of our paychecks and then we pay bills and then we see if we have any spare money for ourselves.



Do you really think the government is going to wait til you have any spare money before they take it? Think again.



If liberals are so interested in the poor, why does the current liberal administration want to limit our charitable giving tax allowances? My answer is they want more control of how and where money goes.

Answer 10

It's a correct presentation of a liberal description, yes.



Quite simply, a liberal would distribute wealth by taking from the "haves" and giving to the "have nots"

However effective this may be in the short term, it is unsustainable..



A conservative would distribute the wealth by encouraging us each to do better, in doing so we can not help but create an environment for the rest uf us to do better as well.

In order to elevate ourselves, we create jobs both through investment and consumption.



This not only distributes wealth today, but indefinitely.

Answer 11

you're not into politics so how do you know that any of us would actually be telling you the truth? If you want to know what Liberals and COnservatives stand for why not expand your mind, do the research yourself and THEN decide where you stand? Or you could just keep believing the regurgitate BS your coworkers feed you, either way it's your choice.



Of course my opinion is valid but it's just that an "opinion" doesn't make it fact. I could tell you that your coworker is dead on and he could be completely wrong but because I believe as he does you might take that as truth. You need to find the answers for yourself so that you too can be confident in where you stand.

Answer 12

Over-broad generalizations.



I'm a liberal who believes in less government control and regulation. I am socially liberal but fiscally conservative.



I am a Liberal Republican.

Answer 13

Conservatives... Liberals... both have the same intelligence quotient (IQ) of 80.



All you will get is biased opinions here from libs and cons. Google it.



Conservatives generally are right wing and support free market. But fail to realize how too much Capitalism = *fart sound*.



Liberals generally are left wing and support more government intervention. But they also fail to realize how too much government intervention = *fart sound*.

Answer 14

i'm afraid the question lacks true intent on your part...you and i know that you are what you are, and we both know that your mind is already made up as to what and how you think about the country and the government in general. your last sentence sealed your fate to get any decent answers or responses to this question. there is plenty of very informative info out there that can be read and interpreted on your part. please note that this is one of the tenets of conservatism...personal initiative and responsibility. you'll also find in your own research that conservatives don't just care about themselves and we surely don't think of our ideals as ridiculous !!!

Answer 15

Your wise for someone not into politics

Allow me to explain for Ljkljk

Liberal politicians run because they have faith in the government. They feel they can do the job better then the corporation, which have shown time and time again that they are far too greedy to do anything but enrich themselves. Conservative politicians run with no faith in the government. They believe in privatizing government organizations to people they think will do a better job then the government that they are a part of.

So, and conservative voter goes into a voting booth and, sees two names. One name is someone who feels they can do the job, and one name who feel they can't do the job. Guess with one they pick. I wonder if they use the same criteria to pick their doctors.

Answer 16

you'll get a more honest answer from just researching it on your own, you definately wont get a straight answer here, as you can see, most answers are completely biased and geared more toward bashing the opposing view; even though Wikipedia isnt always the best of sources, their articles on liberalism and conservatism would be a pretty good start



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberalism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatism

Answer 17

Their are liberal and conservative pieces of each party.



To put it simply



Republicans - think you know what's best to spend your money on



Democrats - think they know what's best to spend your money on

Answer 18

Liberal- Sees welfare as a lifetime job.



Conservative- Sees welfare as a hand up and out.



Most conservatives beleive in helping people out, but not supporting them. I am all for money to re train or educate people so they can have a better life, but not living on my dime for generations, which sadly happens.



BTW I am a moderate with no party affiliation.

Answer 19

if you want one world government and it controls everything you do or say or want to be a socialist your liberal-- if you want free thinking and for capitalism you conservative

Answer 20

Judge by actions, not words.

Conservatives say they want smaller government interference.



Their actions indicate they want less interference with BUSINESS, but MORE interference in OUR PRIVATE LIVES.



If 2 guys get married, how does that hurt anybody else's marriage? It doesn't. But they oppose it. Why? Religion. They want THEIR religious beliefs to govern us ALL.

They would establish the CONSERVATIVE CHRISTIAN STATES OF AMERICA.



But look at what Jesus did.

Did he reject people?

NO.

He never rejected anyone, in fact, went out of his way to hang out with and make heroes of the people most rejected by society.



The prodigal son, let's face it was a jerk, but dad accepted him back with open arms.



The woman caught in adultery - automatic death sentence, Jesus intervened and saved her life



The samaritans were the least popular race in Jesus' day, that is WHY he made a samaritan the hero of the story.



And who did Jesus go home with for dinner?

The least popular man in town, the tax collector.



Does that sound like a republican?

Or a democrat?

Answer 21

Socialism has never worked anywhere. We had the free market system until lately.Our health, legal,and economic systems while not perfect are the best in the world.Where would you go for a life saving operation?

Answer 22

It's very benevolent of you to want to give your "spare money" away to those that deserve it..but it's more than obvious you have no spare money, because if you did, it would have long ago been taken away BY THE GOVERNMENT, AND YOU WOULD HAVE NO SAY ON WHO RECIEVED IT..THE RICH ARE ALREADY FOOTING THE BILL FOR EVERYTHING!!! THE TOP 2 PERCENT OF MONEY EARNERS PAY 90% ALL TAXES CONFISCATED BY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT...in closing, WHAT ARE YOU WHINING ABOUT???

Answer 23

You're leaning liberal?



If you lean any more you're going to fall over your own butt.

Answer 24

hahahaha!v You're not fooling anyone. Sure, you didn't start out with an opinion, like I didn't start out with two eyes, a nose and a mouth. You are not worth trying to convince why liberalism isn't in your best interest.

Answer 25

Liberals are dumb enough to trust politicians.

Liberals want the government to force others to give them freebies.



Conservatives are smart enough not to trust politicians.

Conservatives believe in earning their own money.



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Hey Pirate (appropriate name for someone who wants freebies), you asked me for definitions, not for an analysis of YOU. I don't care about YOU. YOU bore me. You admitted that you are ignorant, and I agree with you.



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First you write, "explain to me why conservatives need the time of day to be listened to? They seem to only care about themselves and their ridiculous ideals of a traditional America."



Then you write, " I come here for different opinions, is all, not mindless hate!"



So you can dish out hate but you can't take it? You are a poster child of hippocritical liberals.



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I'll tell you what, tax pirate, how about we call a truce? I will send you a big block of government cheese and then you will be nice to me because you love handouts. Deal?



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What? Still hostile? How about I throw in some powdered milk? Happy now?

Answer 26

Yes as you admit it's biased.....you ask why conservatives need the time of day to be listened to.....I answer....they'll explode if they don't get the time of day........walking timebombs........gotta let the air out slowly.....that's why.

Answer 27

Liberals are people who grew up being middle class and they want to see change to help people especially the poor.

Conservatives are people who grew up rich and they want everything to stay the same. They want the rich to get richer.

Answer 28

Liberals are those who's mind is so open that their brains have fallen out .

Answer 29

liberals are open minded and want to help people.



conservatives are stuffy rich people who thinks everyone should b like them