political/economic leanings meme

[asterroc]

I've done this one before, with the same results, though I think the questions were slightly different.

You are a Social Liberal (70% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (20% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test

Comments

[marquiswildbill.livejournal.com]

I think I would break the test because my beliefs are all over the place. In many regards I'm a libertarian, in others I am a socialist. Would that make me balance out as a democrat because I don't find that fits. I'm very socially permissive and moderately economically permissive, so the second test might yield results that were abve the noise ratio of this test (were one to be established). Granted I'm used to being an outlier.

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

In high school I was economically permissive, thinking capitalism would make everything sort itself out. In grad school I realized that I'd been privileged my whole life, and realized that capitalism tends to benefit those who are already on top. For example, the capitalist ideal says that anyone can get schooling and better themselves and get a higher paying job. In reality, if you're a child in a low-income area, your K-12 schooling will tend to be worse, you won't get into good colleges, and even if you did you wouldn't have the money to attend (or at least would go horribly into debt). Once I realized this was the state of things, I started to think it was important to protect the people on the bottom of the system, and that apparently is what socialism is, economics-wise.

[blahblahboy.livejournal.com]

I just took the test and I guess it couldn't figure out what I was -- I was a centrist. (38% socially permissive and 56% economically permissive)

Just one of those questions could keep a discussion going for a while. I said that only the literate should vote. I wasn't aware that you could vote otherwise. Or is there a picture booth where you see the candidates' faces (not just their names!) for the illiterate?

I agree with you that people with downward momentum (the poor) have a worse chance than those with upward momentum. That's why education is so important. Also, it really annoys me when people have extreme views because they could never concede that their opinion could ever be wrong in some situation.

At the end of the day though, this society is not for the smartest, it's for the people who are most aggressive / charismatic. And so... society is most likely not going to be optimal. (I suppose though an argument could be made that the most aggressive people are in fact the smartest.)

[zandperl.livejournal.com]

Literacy is not a requirement for voting according to current laws. Anyone is allowed to bring an assistant into the booth, you're also allowed to bring any sort of papers you want into the booth (for example, showing which box to check or what the name of the candidate you want looks like), or you can get an absentee ballot and have someone assist you with it.

Although you are allowed to bring an assistant, various disability rights groups are upset that many polling stations do not allow them to vote without an assistant. For example, should having arms be a requirement for voting? Shouldn't people without arms have the same right to the privacy of their vote as you and I have?

Requiring literacy for voting is actually something the opposition attempted when blacks got the vote - blacks were less likely to be literate, so let's just require literacy and disenfranchise all of them! Similarly, photo ID is not required to vote (except they're are allowed to ask for photo ID the first time you vote in a new district), because it does cost a little money to get a driver's license, state photo ID, or a passport.