Let's say two people start separate businesses and get rich. Who cares what their line of business is - let's just assume that they are in the business of manufacturing kalamazoos.
One is a conservative, the other a leftie.
Now the conservative will probably say, "I'm rich, I'm succesful and I have worked hard. I'm going to spend my money any way I want, and as far as I am concerned, my employees can do the same. They've earned it - they are free to do good things with it or bad."
The leftie on the other hand might think like this: "I am rich and succesful, and I have gotten that way by knowing more about things than everyone else. I know what is right for people, so I am going to use my newfound wealth to accumulate the power to dictate what other people must do in their lives. If they were as good and knowledgeable and sensible as me, then they too would be rich. But since they aren't, they must have failings, and it is my job to correct those failings."
Which is why whenever I see a rich leftie, I want to punch them in the face. Not for being rich. Good on them for being rich. But for being such smug, self-satisfied arseholes that they think they should run our lives for us.
I'd prefer that rich lefties developed a taste for cocaine and whores rather than a taste for meddling in the lives of others.
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Someone might still say that your conservative is heartless, since he seems not to care about uplifting others. (Don't we hear this endlessly?).
Fact is of course, there is abundant evidence that people do better when left alone - laissez faire - than when 'betters' meddle in their lives. The 2 billion people of India and China became prosperous when (failed) state socialism was wound down and global investment welcomed.
Then the meddlers point to things like public health, where central control seems necessary and has led to advances.
How do you respond to someone saying, 'I demand something is done about world poverty!' (A woman I met 10 yrs ago).
I have a pommie mate who's an ALP buff. He says, 'Everyone in Australia should have a decent house. There is no reason why we can't make that happen'.
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