Quote:
Originally Posted by blankall
At the basis of leftist though is the motto:
"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs"
It relies on the fact that, in a socialist system, everyone will work as hard as they can and only take what they need.
|
First of all, nobody on the left actually wants a socialist system. Cherrypicking a few good ideas is quite enough for them.
Second, that is not the basis of leftist thinking. It's actually not even terribly common idea in todays left wing politics, especially not in North America. Your view is like a blast from the sixties.
By far the more common reason why people are left-leaning these days is because
they believe left-wing economics to be cost effective or directly beneficial to themselves.
There's a reason why far left activists constantly complain that the majority of "left wing" politicians don't actually care about the poor and the homeless. It's because it's true. Sure, the left wing politicians like to talk about how something is "fair", but you have to say something nice in speeches.
Progressive taxation is simply good economics that's proven to work. Right now the rich simply have so much money that it's stupid not to take it from them. It's the right that tries to counter this with moralistic arguments that it's "stealing". Boohoo. It works. (Or at least the left believe it works, which is the point of the argument.)
It's also simply a fact that public healthcare is a much cheaper way of doing things. If you have a sick relative, this question becomes very close to your personal finances. Providing safe and cheap abortions easily is simply the most rational way of handling the issue, according to numerous studies and historical data. Again lots of people support this for personal reasons. Widely available cheap education brings enourmous benefits to the society in the long run, both economically and by bringing social stability through the the possibility of upwards mobility (which in itself is good for a country). If you're worried about your student loans or your ability to pay for your kids education, this is stuff you start to think about. Putting people to jail for drug use is not helping the situation, it's just been making things worse.
You might have noticed that the left is interested in a much wider range of studies than is generally the case at right. This IMO is quite telling of which side is actually the calculating side and which side is the naïve moralists.
The right wants to do what's right. It bothers them if someone is doing something wrong, to the point where it doesn't matter if the solution is more costly than the problem, or even that the "solution" might not do what it's supposed to do. (See: The War on Drugs.)
The left generally wants to do something that is cost-effective and proven to work.