Liberals like to charactertize conservatives as not caring as much about their fellow man as much as they do. Their resistance to redistributing wealth would be one example where they think this shows. Conservatives deny this charge and argue that the policies that liberals espouse would actually, on average, do more harm than good to their fellow man. And almost certainly the conservatives are, with a few exceptions, correct. Adam Smith's invisible hand is better than government intervention. Everybody trying to maximize their own self interested goals is what works best for society as a whole.

The only problem I have with this is that conservatives use the above fact to refute the liberals initial charge. As if the reason they want to maximize their self interest is for the good of everyone. Yeah sure. Sort of like the people here who play internet poker for a living and pretend they want it legalized because the government has no right to tell them what sites to visit. In both cases the people are just lucky that the arguments favor policies that are personally to their benefit. But suppose those arguments were proved to be probably wrong. What percent would change their stance?

I don't think Conservatives bother to justify themselves anyway. They are selfish in their approach and just grab what they can. I don't think the least regulated societies "work best". It sounds like the Wild West to us over in Europe.

**** you man that is my mother you are talking about!

TMI. I don't need to know you have a mother.

Conservatives love to spout that BS about reducing the size of govt. They are hypocrites, they love big govt when it suits their agenda.

eg they like big military spending.

OP are you talking about theoretical conservatives, or modern day people who identify as conservatives? Because while it's pretty clear modern day conservatives prefer the invisible hand when it comes to stuff like decreasing govt interference with doing business, they have no problem whatsoever meddling with people's sex lives and other personal choices.

and corporate subsidies/welfare

They like spending in general. Look at the green energy hearing the other day where all the R's got up and said 'I have not and would not ever ask for this type of spending in my state or to speed it up and end up with a Solyndra in my district!' only to have all their letters doing exactly those types of things come out the next day. Or how they'll be all over all spending huge amounts of money and manpower on enforcing their social agenda. It's all BS.

This isnt even close to proven.

I would posit most humans have a blend of selfishness and altruism in them. Modern parties tend to lump traits together (as in the same people that don't believe in global warming also are prolife and are also hawks in war even though these are all very different). So I dont think it is a huge surprise that one party would be more on the altruistic side and the other in the selfish side I don't even think this is a bad thing or should be considered a pejorative to republicans.

Lol like ten posts and not a single one, A SINGLE ONE, even remotely comes close to responding to OP's question.

Congrats,
Politics forum.

P.S. for a second I thought I was in BBV or 4L.

If that's your opinion what's your answer ?

Sklansky thread tho

When it comes to politics people are often contradictory and hypocritical you say? I'm sure you'll deign to name this discovery the Sklansky hypothesis no doubt. If you want great evidence of this just look into the immigration threads we have going here intellectual bobbing and weaving that would dazzle Ali.

A : I'm anti immigration because they take our jobs

B : Actually if you review these studies they show pretty conclusively that immigration is a boon to the economy, generally creating wealth and jobs.

A : Maybe but I'm anti immigration because they don't pay taxes and they consume our services.

B : Again all the evidence points to the fact that illegal immigrants generally pay for more in taxes than they take from the system. They pay property taxes and sales taxes and gas taxes and rarely taxes deductions or use services that a citizen would for fear of being discovered.

A : Well I'm anti immigration because they're more likely to be criminals

B : In fact normalising the data for socio economic factors illegal immigrants generally commit an equal or sometimes lesser amount of crimes than citizens.

A : Yeah but THEY BORKED DA LAW!

B : Don't you agree that some laws are immoral and should be broken. Was it morally wrong to free slaves even though it was against the law?

A : I'm anti immigration.

B : But why?

A : I just am!

B : Sigh.

Selfishness and greed are bad. If the missus has scoffed all the dinner before I get home that's bad.

Bout 3.50% imo.

Obv it's not just right wingers. See the liberals who are vehemently against school vouchers despite reasonably clear evidence that they greatly aid the poor children that those same liberals claim to care most about.

his question was obviously rhetorical.

Blimey the voucher system is considered right-wing over here. A decent school education is considered to be a right.

It is in the US also. His assertions that vouchers help poor kids are unproven, at best.

Didn't you post in the "if you think your political beliefs are rational, you're wrong" thread? Seems like that covers these bases pretty well.

Conservatives grab what they work for and liberals try to grab at what the conservatives work for.

Majority of conservatives like the idea of smaller government in EVERY situation.

social conservatives tho

ETA: I also think you're wrong when you look at other factors. The majority of 'conservatives' also rail against military spending cuts.

Not really sure how you can claim what you did with a straight face to be honest.