Nowhere are the battle lines between Progressivism and Conservatism more boldly drawn than in the area of Jobs creation for Americans. As Fox News reports, the continued loss of jobs in the current recession is bring the jobs issue front and center despite the Obama Administration's best efforts to keep it low key in 2009. What are the key differences between the two philosophies?
Progressives:
-believe Government can stimulate job creation by massive Federal spending
-believe that target economic stimulus is better than the seemingly helter-skelter approach of letting the market make spending decisions
-deficits don't matter if you are investing in infrastructure
-the economy can't do its best without some one looking over it
-Free markets are unfair, some people do better than others
-Government has an obligation to level the playing field
Conservatives:
-believe in limited central government per the Constitution
-people decide best how to spend their money
-private sector is the engine of economic growth and wealth creation
-deficit spending long term is bad monetary policy
-a rising tide of economic growth lifts all ships, everyone prospers
-individual opportunity and responsibility
Obviously the dynamics of each philosophy are far more complicated than this, but these basic principals shape the agendas of each movement. And, will shape the battle of the elections in 2010. Clearly, since the age of Reagen in the 1980's, the size of the Federal Government has grown to massive proportions. And yet the problems that big government is supposed to solve; economic inequality and poverty are by many measures just as bad or worse than they were back in the 1950's when the size of the Federal Government and its impact on the everyday lives of Americans was far less.
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