I read an article today about a poll showing people with conservative philosophies are 'happier' than people with liberal philosophies. That’s not surprising since several independent polls have found the same thing. What struck me were people’s responses. Among the usual flame wars between conservatives yelling “get a job” and liberals yelling “look beyond your wallet” was buried this gem from Terry in N.C.: “Liberals are always looking for something for nothing, to support these liberals you have to have a lot of money for them and many government programs to assist them. On the other hand conservatives work hard and are not always looking for hand outs. Conservatives make more out of less to get by.”
This is easily the most ignorant thing I read today. It’s wrong on so many levels, I don’t know where to start. But here’s the old college try:
Research dating back to the late 1800’s and the beginning of industrialization in this country consistently shows that people want to work and have productive jobs. It’s part of the human need to be productive and it’s part of the philosophy of our country- “work hard and you can move up the social and economic scale.” Few people want handouts or the stigma that comes with them. And few people want to feel like they are unproductive and useless.
In regards to government programs that assist liberals, here’s someone that doesn’t know her own country’s history or current economics. The federal government has been subsidizing this nation practically since its inception. The entire American west was built on federally subsidized water. The mid-west was founded by farmers on federally subsidized land. The entire energy, communications, and banking industries are founded on principles of heavy government payouts and tax breaks. Look at the airlines, the saving and loans that survived the shake-up in the 1980’s, and the current lending and credit debacle and tell me with a straight face the government is not giving out handouts. What Miss Terry is saying is that it’s ok for government to subsidize COMMERCIAL interests, but NOT human or social interests.
Finally, she claims that conservatives always work hard and make more out of less. But history has shown that the conservative interests are the ones receiving the majority of those massive government subsidies and tax breaks. The companies and industries receiving these handouts are owned by (predominantly) rich, white, conservative businessmen. It’s their pockets that are being lined with government cheese. Based on just these few examples, it seems to me that conservatives have no basis for claiming that it’s only liberals looking for hand-outs. Right now, as I type this (at noon during lunch), conservative interest groups are pushing legislation through Congress that will, in essence, give them massive subsidies and payouts to protect “intellectual property” and crack down on piracy of movies and music. They are trying (quite successfully) to force the government and taxpayers to pay for these anti-piracy measures rather than putting up their own capital. How’s that for a handout Terry?
This isn’t meant to be an indictment of conservatives. I happen to agree that people should work hard should not expect handouts. But I also believe that people should be compensated fairly for their work and that they should have the same access to government help as anyone else. No one should have to work two or three jobs and still not have any savings because their money is being soaked up by health insurance companies (subsidized), groceries (from subsidized farms), transportation (oil and gas subsidies), cell phones (subsidized), etc. Why should the government not help out its people by providing them a helping hand? If interest groups, businesses, and Wall Street can get help, why not the people that clean up after them?
Terry’s response is nothing more than rhetoric spouted by people that watch too much Hannity and Colmes. It shows a clear lack of understanding of people in general (who want to work), “conservatives” in particular (who are busy getting many of the handouts they so desperately deplore- particularly when they go to someone else), and the federal government (which in some way gives hand-outs to nearly every industry in this country). The major problem is that people (liberals and conservatives) won’t take the time to look at what is happening or to understand the way their own country works. They would rather throw insults at each other and blame the other side. In the end, both sides are to blame and both sides are needed to craft a solution.
2 comments:
I read a similar article and noticed that the definition of "happiness" had less to do with the political leanings of any group and more about the social awareness of others. While I am oversimplifying a little, the moral of the article was that conservatives are happier because they worry less about others and are content to make due with what they have. That is, of course, pure bullshit.
Conservatives and liberals alike have the interests of others in mind. Certain sub-segments of these groups may have more sinister plans, but I was highly disappointed in the tone and the implied definitions found in the article that I read. Polls like these are essentially useless anyway.
I agree. These are pointless surveys. But I thought it highlighted an important point about people claiming that their particular group never does the things they accuse another group of. I mean, I get super pissed at bad drivers, but I'm totally aware that I've done many of those same things. I think the key difference is that there are some people that learn from their actions and the evidence put in front of them and others that close their eyes and refuse to learn.
You also make a good point that both sides are interested in the well-being of others. Their solutions are different and based on different ideas about how the world does and should work, but they're mostly well meaning. It smacks too much of paranoia and fear-mongering for me to believe that one whole camp is actually working hard to achieve complete world domination.
These polls tend to just highlight bad social research. We all know the way the questions are asked and a person's mood at the time have a massive influence on these types of surveys. Lord knows I consider myself "happy" most of the time and I love to yell at things. In fact, I'm going to go yell at the cat just for kicks.
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