Lliberalism VS Conservatism: the Situation in America
The ideology of liberalism and conservatism divides American politics, distinguishing them apart from each other with how they deal with poverty and social policies. In liberalism vs conservatism essay this topic is briefly discussed.
Liberals typically favor more government interaction to help promote more equality and justices when dealing with social and economic values, whereas conservatives believe in the lack of government officials dabbling in social and economic values in American society. Liberals are pro universal access to affordable healthcare, increasing minimum wage and oppose government interaction with private life politics, such as same sex marriage and the legal status of abortions. Conservatives usually oppose government influence and intervention to promote social and economic equality. The complete opposite of liberalism. Conservatives oppose any individual liberties protected by laws and passages such the Bill of Rightsю This can be seen predominately with protecting the right to bear arms and outlawing abortion.
These two ideologies react to poverty differently because liberals tend to be more in favor of government assistance such as welfare, whereas conservatives believe any able body individual can take care of themselves. This ca be seen in chapter 17 of We the People, “deserving poor’ and “undeserving poor”.
Until early 1930s “deserving poor” described as a widow or orphan who were dependent on governmental assistance simply because they couldn’t fend for themselves, all the while an “undeserving poor” was simply a person who was unwilling to work. Conservatives latched onto this ideology.
According to the eleventh edition of We the People, Americans are. “philosophical conservatives and operational liberals,” because anyone identifying themselves as a conservative, were pro limitations of the government interference as well as an unregulated market, but supported many liberal programs such as social security, environmental protection, and Medicare'. Although we have these programs, not all Americans benefit equally with these social programs. For example, a consequence is shown with the shared responsibility of federal and state when it comes to governmental programs. The states that responsibility with funding with the federal government, those citizens receive a better program compared to those states that don’t share funding’s with the federal government. This can be seen with TANF, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the monthly benefits is shown to be higher in states like Alaska, Washington, and California who receive $500 a month, compared to Texas, Georgia, and Oklahoma, who receive under $300 a month.
Overall government benefits have, and social welfare has tremendously changed over time. This can be seen with the significant increase for elder benefits such as Medicare, shifting up at least 15% contrasting with benefits for children by 13%. This can be concluded by the increase of the elder population correlating with children as well as the need for retirement pension.
