Dr Grump
Platinum Member
- Apr 4, 2006
- 31,625
- 6,434
Yeah, well just to add to the confusion, in Australia the Labor party is our version of the Dems, and the Liberal party is our version of the GoP.
I disagree. I believe in a safety net at the bottom of a cliff not a hammock. There is nothing wrong with a safety net. Countries that don't have them include the likes of India, Pakistan, Nicaragua, Mexico...so that is the end game if you don't have some social programmes in place.
There needs to be a fine line. I find US conservatives basically believe people should live off the bones of their arse if they don't have a job. That would never work. You have to give people hope. I know people who have been unemployed and gotten the dole (unemployment) and they hated every minute of it. They were both Labor and Liberal voters.
Foxfyre is also assuming that anybody who benefits from a social programme is a liberal, to which I say, 'prove it'.
Is there generational unemployment and sense of entitlement amongst some families? Sure. Are they liberals? Who the fuck knows. I don't, and neither does FF...
I'm not arguing whether or not there should be a safety net. I'm trying to describe why an American conservative would say an American liberal has an entitlement mentality. To an American conservative (or most of them anyways), arguing for a safety net is to argue for entitlements. Thus, to American conservatives, liberals have an entitlement mentality because they argue for entitlements.
In Commonwealth countries, socialists often argue that people have a right to entitlements, no different than a right to life or whatever. Some American liberals argue that but its not as ubiquitous in American political discourse as it is elsewhere.
Yeah, well, down here even the conservatives 'get' 'entitlements'.....
Now, what they are supposed to be etc.. is another story...