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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region Forums7 things people who say they’re ‘fiscally conservative & socially liberal’ don’t understand
You can’t separate fiscal issues from social issues. They’re deeply intertwined. They affect each other. Economic issues often are social issues. And conservative fiscal policies do enormous social harm. That’s true even for the mildest, most generous version of “fiscal conservatism” — low taxes, small government, reduced regulation, a free market. These policies perpetuate human rights abuses. They make life harder for people who already have hard lives. Even if the people supporting these policies don’t intend this, the policies are racist, sexist, classist (obviously), ableist, homophobic, transphobic, and otherwise socially retrograde.
1: Poverty, and the cycle of poverty.
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2: Domestic violence, workplace harassment, and other abuse.
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3: Disenfranchisement.
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4: Racist policing.
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5: Drug policy and prison policy.
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6: Deregulation.
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7: “Free” trade.
Details at link: http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/here-are-7-things-people-who-say-theyre-fiscally-conservative-but-socially-liberal-dont-understand/
Conservative economic policies undermine civil rights at every level, there is no denying it and there is no separating the two.
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liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)This is the big one. Poverty is a social issue. The cycle of poverty — the ways that poverty itself makes it harder to get out of poverty, the ways that poverty can be a permanent trap lasting for generations — is a social issue, and a human rights issue.
If you’re poor, there’s about a two in three chance that you’re going to stay poor for at least a year, about a two in three chance that if you do pull out of poverty you’ll be poor again within five years — and about a two in three chance that your children are going to be poor. Among other things: Being poor makes it much harder to get education or job training that would help you get higher-paying work. Even if you can afford job training or it’s available for free — if you have more than one job, or if your work is menial and exhausting, or if both of those are true (often the case if you’re poor), there’s a good chance you won’t have the time or energy to get that training, or to look for higher-paying work.
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Also, ironically, being poor is expensive. You can’t buy high-quality items that last longer and are a bargain in the long run. You can’t buy in bulk. You sure as hell can’t buy a house: depending on where you live, monthly mortgage payments might be lower than the rent you’re paying, but you can’t afford a down payment, and chances are a bank won’t give you a mortgage anyway. You can’t afford the time or money to take care of your health — which means you’re more likely to get sick, which is expensive. If you don’t have a bank account (which many poor people don’t), you have to pay high fees at check-cashing joints. If you run into a temporary cash crisis, you have to borrow from price-gouging payday-advance joints. If your car breaks down and you can’t afford to repair or replace it, it can mean unemployment. If you can’t afford a car at all, you’re severely limited in what jobs you can take in the first place — a limitation that’s even more severe when public transportation is wildly inadequate. If you’re poor, you may have to move a lot — and that’s expensive. These aren’t universally true for all poor people — but way too many of them are true, for way too many people.
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http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/here-are-7-things-people-who-say-theyre-fiscally-conservative-but-socially-liberal-dont-understand/
RobertEarl
(13,685 posts)But I came to understand that more socialism as a government ideology was more correct.
One reason I was fiscally conservative was the fact of paying so much in taxes. Then I began to see what taxes did for society when the government handled the revenue properly. So what I was against was war, and subsidies for big corporations, that my hard earned dollars were going towards. Taxes still are going to wrong places and that is why I got involved in politics - to try and change that course. Now, finally, Bernie's hand on the wheel just may make that course change?
JayhawkSD
(3,163 posts)... that I favor "low taxes, small government, reduced regulation, a free market."
I favor none of those things. A large country cannot be managed by a small government; the idea is absurd. I favor sufficient regulation to prevent capitalism from being predatory, which means more than we have now. Additionally, we need enforcement of whatever regulation we have in place. And "free market" is gibberish spouted by idealouges and means no mre than the proverbial sounding brass. And I most certainly do not favor, per se, low taxes. In fact, I believe we should have higher, and more progressive, taxes than we presently do.
I am fiscally conservative because I believe that, as a great nation, we should do all of the things that liberals advocate, and we should have an adequately progressive tax structure that generates sufficient revenue to pay for the services that government delivers to its citizens. I am fiscally conservative because I believe we should not spend money we do not have, other than for short term debt generated in times of economic distress which should be paid down in times of prosperity.
An ever growing national debt is a burden on the overall economy which degrades the value of currency and erodes the real earnings of the working population. It requires infaltion in order to sustain the illusion of growth and to reduce the cost of borrowing, inflation which degardes the value of savings and investments and impoverishes the elderly.
AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)Things like austerity, that are pushed by so called Democrats. Things that are a 1-2 punch in the gut of the poor. Things that are pushed by the 'Third Way®".
JayhawkSD
(3,163 posts)
Populist_Prole
(5,364 posts)"I have enough money to insulate myself from the downsides of neoliberal/consevative economic policy, but I'm still a good person because I believe in: ( insert social policy issue(s) of choice )"
These are the hippies that turned into yuppies, or the offspring of the working class proles that bought into the horseshit that the work of their parents is now obsolete, and that their own sinecures are the way of the world. But they love the whales and the "environment" and shit ( as long as it doesn't cause physical discomfort or inconvenience to their daily lives )
JayhawkSD
(3,163 posts)I claim to be socially liberal and fiscally conservative, and I do not mean by that anything close to the scurrilous garbage that you attribute to me.
What I mean is that we should do more than we are presently doing for the disadvantaged, that minority groups should have fully equal rights, and that we should we should raise taxes, particularly on the upper income classes, but on everyone as needed to pay for the programs that we deem necessary to achieve those things.
And I am not some hippie turned into a yuppie. I am a Navy submarine service veteran, a long time labor union member, and retired from a fifty year career working in blue collar jobs.
JHB
(37,158 posts)PPp was not replying to you.
freshwest
(53,661 posts)
Paka
(2,760 posts)AgingAmerican
(12,958 posts)There’s a cycle that in some ways is even uglier than the cycle of poverty — because it blocks people from changing the policies that keep the cycle of poverty going. I’m talking about the cycle of disenfranchisement.
I’m talking about the myriad ways that the super-rich control the political process — and in controlling the political process, both make themselves richer and give themselves even more control over the political process. Purging voter rolls. Cutting polling place hours. Cutting back on early voting — especially in poor districts. Voter ID laws. Roadblocks to voter registration — noticeably aimed at people likely to vote progressive. Questionable-at-best voter fraud detection software, which — by some wild coincidence — tends to flag names that are common among minorities. Eliminating Election Day registration. Restricting voter registration drives. Gerrymandering — creating voting districts with the purpose of skewing elections in your favor.
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/here-are-7-things-people-who-say-theyre-fiscally-conservative-but-socially-liberal-dont-understand/