Despite RedStateVT's maintaining that I am a left wing liberal just because I tend to vote Democratic these days. For the record, I would have voted for the GOP NYC Mayoral candidate if I was a NYC resident.
Anyway, there was a study done 2 decades ago looking at attitudes toward redistribution policies.
"When participants in the experiments were told that resources were very scarce, liberals became less generous and began to make the same judgments as conservatives. Both left and right “denied assistance to people they deemed personally responsible for their plight.” In other words, scarcity and a lack of resources made participants more conservative in their outlook."
"But when participants were told there was “no scarcity,” liberals awarded benefits to everyone, and only conservatives made a distinction between giving to the “deserving” and withholding from the “undeserving.”
For the record, I believe in traditional Keynesian policies that fiscal policy should contract when the economy booms and expand when the economy contracts. Policies that help the unemployed should expand when the economy contracts and shrink to base level when the economy expands. Therefore, in the framework of this study, I am a conservative.
I also believe that the Fed has a responsibility to make sure inflation is held at a reasonable level (that is between 1% & 2% for me) and that the economy does not trip into a recession nor experience disastrous bubbles. I don't know why that belief would have any liberal or conservative connotations, it is just prudent economic policy management.
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