On Tue, 31 May 2011 23:01:04 +0000 (UTC) 123hop at comcast.net writes:
>
> There are two basic and differing senses of "liberal"
>
> -- Politically, a liberal is one who opposes govt interference in
> our private lives. This sort of person would support anything
> consenting adults want to do, possibly believe in the legalization
> of drugs, and possibly some role for the govt in leveling the
> playing field.
>
> -- Economically, a liberal is one who opposes govt interference in
> the free market. This sort of person might oppose regulation,
> minimum wage, tariffs, etc.
>
> It gets confusing because political liberals tend not to be economic
> liberals and vice versa.
>
> There is nothing about "liberal" that implies "socialist."
That's because you're originally from Europe and you're thinking of the label the way that most Europeans do. Friedrich Hayek always insisted on calling himself a "liberal", and he was alway clear that meant supporting free-market economics. In the US, the term "liberal" is generally used in place of the term "social democrat." Prior to the 1980s, an American liberal was someone who generally supported a relatively generous welfare state.
In Britain, the term liberal, through most of the 19th century, meant being a supporter of free-market economics. That began to change later in that century. The philosopher and economist, J.S. Mill, being a prime exampler of this change. He started off like his mentors, like his father James and his father's friend Jeremy Bentham, as a stauch supporter of free-market economics, but ended up as a kind of socialist towards the end of his life (he proposed replacing conventional capitalist enterprises with worker-owned cooperatives). By the late 19th century there were prominent thinkers like the philosopher T.H. Green, who called themselves liberals, but who supported a more interventionist state. This change was also reflected in practical politics in Britain too, The Liberal Party, back in the days of Gladstone, championed free-market policies, as championed by the Manchester School. By the late 19th century, the party had become supportive of at least a limited welfare state, especially as workers from the trade unions began to become active in the party.
Jim Farmelant http://independent.academia.edu/JimFarmelant www.foxymath.com Learn or Review Basic Math
>
> Joanna
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