Colorado Technical University

Do you think its harder to debate as a fiscal conservative than it is as a liberal?

I'm always debating with my homies who are huge Obama fans, and its so easy for them because they always stand for these feel good issues like free health care for everyone, publicly funded college for everyone and welfare programs for these people and these people, and as a fiscal conservative and small government person I'm always against all these things, and I always get the same reaction from them, like I'm some mean spirited person, how could I be against health care and college for everyone. When I start questioning where the money is going to come from for all these programs they finally admit it means higher taxes, but most of the people looking for all these programs are the ones that don't have money for education and health care in the first place, you're not going to get much taxes from them they are earning less income, which means the tax burden is being passed off to the people who can already afford these things for themselves, why should they pay more? Why should they be penalized because they went to better schools and earned a better education and worked skilled careers? Once we get past the whole tax issue I start questioning them about weather they expect to receive better quality service and lower prices from an institution that has a government monopoly, or from a corporation that has to compete with other companies with lower prices and better quality service.. Point being, its like I'm always the mean spirited guy because it sounds so harsh to say I'm against all these programs, and they sound so caring and generous because they support it, even though its not them that's going to be forking up the bill for it all.. And I came straight out of the ghetto so I don't want to hear about not understanding the less fortunate..

Public Comments

1. It's easier to debate from a conservative perspective, as you have learned, because you have facts, logic and common sense on your side. All liberals have on their side are feelings. So you will win all of the debates, but yes, you might come out looking cold-hearted. Take a cue from Ann Coulter: Don't talk to them.
2. Your problem is not that you are arguing from a fiscal conservative point of view. The problem is that you are either a Republican, which is not a fiscal conservative, or you are a Libertarian that takes it to the extreme. The fact is that there is no party (other than moderate Democrats) that even comes close to supporting a sane and practical platform of fiscal conservatism.
3. From what you wrote, you appear to be able to handle the situation pretty well. Just keep telling the truth. One other point, a college degree does not automatically mean a person can get a good paying job, or that they are any smarter than a person without one. You may also want to ask your "Homeys" how many of them have lived where there is universal health care, like Europe. I lived there and their care is a step (big step) backward from what we have here.
4. These programs do good and are multipliers in our economy. You are not a bad person for opposing them at all. However wanting to abolish them and replace them with nothing but pie in the sky Oregon trail illustrations(which is all I have ever read from libertarians) just doesn't pass the muster.
5. Yes
6. I couldn't imagine being a liberal. The stuff they come up with is priceless. Conservatives actually use logic, because they actually have to put themselves out in the real world and do things that require the use intellect, as opposed to liberals. Liberals are quite often rich spoiled brats who were given millions by their parents or they're from Hollywood. They don't know how the real world works.
7. It’s always easier to debate from a conservative viewpoint because the arguments tend to simplistic. Conservatives say things such as smaller government, lower taxes, cut spending. When you question them however about what should be cut or why their favored administrations manage to make all of those situations worse, they become evasive. They also blindly defend the wealthiest individuals and bash the poorest. That is an easy position for them to rationalize. Obviously poor people have nothing so they must have done something wrong whereas rich people must have done something right. Liberals are always pushing for new approaches and advocating untried solutions. That is inherently harder because there is no way to absolutely predict the results of new approaches. In addition, compassion is a fundamental of liberal ideology. If a person has no compassion there is absolutely no way that you can convince that person that having people starve on the streets is a bad thing, except maybe from an aesthetic point of view.
8. Well to answer your actual question, I do believe it is harder to argue as a fiscal conservative than fiscal liberal because of the facts. I will define a fiscal conservative as one who believes in a free economy and capitalism and a fiscal liberal as one that believes in a mixed economy and partial socialism. If we examine history, we will see that from the 1600s to about 1910, the (European mostly) world had a complete free economy and unrestrained capitalism. What happened? Corporations became monopolies and produced very poor quality goods at artifically high prices. There was a super rich class and an underclass and the progressive movement began to institute some degree of government control. After that workers rights actually became a reality and things like the 40 hour work week, child labor laws, worker safety laws, paid vacation, minimum wage laws, etc. became a reality. Before that it was extremely long hours, in extremely dangerous conditions and tiny wages. Additionally, the government oversees the corporations and the free market to make sure that there is competition and that no corporation becomes a monopoly. And for a very recent example, the 2008 recession was caused by fiscal conservatism. Clinton deregulated the economy and was a fiscal conservative. He made it so that derivatives were unregulated and that it was legal for the banks to give out loans to almost anyone. The result was that the banks were so stuffed with toxic debt that it took a matter of days for Bear Stearns to go completely down. And regulation was stiffened to ensure that would not happen again. So one could make the statement that the progressive and fiscal liberalism came out of the failings of fiscal conservativism. So yes, it is harder to argue as a fiscal conservative, because it has failed in the past and resulted in fiscal liberalism.