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Where do you sit on the political compass exactly?

Axismaster

Active member
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Jan 6, 2006
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Location
Michigan
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Political Leaning
Independent
I think that many of you may have seen the Political Compass quiz. It is the one that measures your social and economic views rather than the old right-left junk. It has four quadrants. I was clearly in the libertarian right quadrant, meaning that I am more capitalist on economics and libertarian on social issues. I was 6 squares to the right and 5 squares down. Where exactly do you fit, which quadrant and what exact measure. Take the test to find out. This is just to see where people on this here site lie. I think it could generate a bit of discussion about parties and ideology.
 


I guess I am an America-hating liberal. :(
 
Engimo said:


I guess I am an America-hating liberal. :(

While you and I tend to be diametrically opposed on economic issues, we seem to be in agreement when it comes to how much control government should have over private lives.
 
Economic Left/Right: -10.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.62

As I thought, a Leftist Lunatic.
 
Comrade Brian said:
Economic Left/Right: -10.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.62

As I thought, a Leftist Lunatic.


Economic Left/Right: -5.63
Social Libertarian?Authoritarian: -1.23

I knew that anyway.
 
Economic Left/Right: -4.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.56

Happily in the corner with Gandhi, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. We rock!
 
mixedmedia said:
Economic Left/Right: -4.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.56

Happily in the corner with Gandhi, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. We rock!

Does everyone here have that much disdain for the free market?
 
Axismaster said:
Does everyone here have that much disdain for the free market?

Yeah, probably because it doesn't work. ;)
 
Engimo said:
Yeah, probably because it doesn't work. ;)

WTF??? Haven't you ever heard of Hong Kong? Singapore? Switzerland? Even America at one point had a free market and the economy grew a lot better then. Seriously, there is an index released about which countries have the most economic freedom. Sadly, America has less and less economic freedom and our economy gets worse and worse. We for the first time are not in the top ten. Still, the top ten countries have economies getting better and better! Also, explain the reason that free-market nations like Singapore, Hong Kong, and Switzerland are so much richer than your communist friends in Venezuala and Cuba.
 
Axismaster said:
WTF??? Haven't you ever heard of Hong Kong? Singapore? Switzerland? Even America at one point had a free market and the economy grew a lot better then. Seriously, there is an index released about which countries have the most economic freedom. Sadly, America has less and less economic freedom and our economy gets worse and worse. We for the first time are not in the top ten. Still, the top ten countries have economies getting better and better! Also, explain the reason that free-market nations like Singapore, Hong Kong, and Switzerland are so much richer than your communist friends in Venezuala and Cuba.

Perhaps the economy grew a lot better, but things like "workers", "children" and "consumers" weren't doing too well.

Need I remind you?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron_(industrialist)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor

Which led to, of course:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Era

It may work for the economy, but it doesn't work for the people. And I'm not a communist, so please refrain from calling me one.
 
Engimo said:
Perhaps the economy grew a lot better, but things like "workers", "children" and "consumers" weren't doing too well.

Need I remind you?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robber_baron_(industrialist)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor

Which led to, of course:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_Era

It may work for the economy, but it doesn't work for the people. And I'm not a communist, so please refrain from calling me one.

Hey man, I never said that having a free market meant you couldn't protect people's rights. I am for child labor laws, minimum wage, and things like that. I also am against right to work laws because as a libertarian, I believe people should be able to form unions without intervention. Of course, those unions should be democratic like the Swiss unions unlike ours here. Still though, can you explain then why Switzerland has a free market economy and has a much higher average wage and far less poverty?
 
Axismaster said:
Hey man, I never said that having a free market meant you couldn't protect people's rights. I am for child labor laws, minimum wage, and things like that. I also am against right to work laws because as a libertarian, I believe people should be able to form unions without intervention. Of course, those unions should be democratic like the Swiss unions unlike ours here. Still though, can you explain then why Switzerland has a free market economy and has a much higher average wage and far less poverty?

...Then you're not for a free market.

Wikipedia said:
A free market is a market where all exchanges are made without coercion; all trades are voluntary. A free market may be said to exist for exchange of a single pair of commodities (for example, money being freely exchanged for bananas at a mutually agreed upon ratio), or the term may be used to refer to an entire economy.
Since no national economy in existence fully manifests the ideal of a free market as theorized by economists and ethicists, the term free market economy is used for a nation state's economy that approximates the ideal by virtue of having a government that engages in little or no interventionist economic regulation.

Wikipedia said:
The laissez-faire school of economic thought holds a pure or free market view, that the free market is best left to its own devices; that it will dispense with inefficiencies in a more deliberate and quick manner than any legislating body could. The basic idea is that less government interference in private economic decisions such as pricing, production, and distribution of goods and services make for a better (more efficient) economy. Government incorporation of laissez-faire principles ended in the early 1990's with the realization of the empirical evidence against it.
 
Engimo said:
...Then you're not for a free market.

What? I don't think businesses have a right to coerce people, hell no! I just don't think government should regulate them in a way that clamps down growth, as they do nowadays.
 
Axismaster said:
What? I don't think businesses have a right to coerce people, hell no! I just don't think government should regulate them in a way that clamps down growth, as they do nowadays.

Okay, then you're not for a free market, you're for a partially free market.
 
Engimo said:
Okay, then you're not for a free market, you're for a partially free market.

Look, I am not an anarcho-capitalist. I am not an objectivist. I am more or less a classical liberal while you are a socialist modern liberal. I am not for NO government intervention in the economy, I just think it should be kept to a bare minimum. I am more or less a Jeffersonian than an Ayn Rand worshipper.
 
alphieb said:
Economic Left/Right: -5.63
Social Libertarian?Authoritarian: -1.23

I knew that anyway.

Ha! I've still beaten everyone else on both economic and social scales for extremism! Now lets see if anyone can beat my score.:smile:
 
Axismaster said:
Look, I am not an anarcho-capitalist. I am not an objectivist. I am more or less a classical liberal while you are a socialist modern liberal. I am not for NO government intervention in the economy, I just think it should be kept to a bare minimum. I am more or less a Jeffersonian than an Ayn Rand worshipper.

Ahh, there we go. :)

If that's what you meant by having "faith in the free-market", I suggest that you just make a point to clarify a little more next time - talking about wanting a free-market immediately conjures up a system of entirely laissez faire economics.
 
Engimo said:
Ahh, there we go. :)

If that's what you meant by having "faith in the free-market", I suggest that you just make a point to clarify a little more next time - talking about wanting a free-market immediately conjures up a system of entirely laissez faire economics.

Well, I support laizzez faire's basic principle of "hands off" but not the sort of objectivist "selfish is good" type of view. I think government should leave its hands off, but still intervene in the rare case it is necessary. In the end I think that limited government will actually improve people's lives. Go to Holistic Politics to see some of my reasoning.
 
galenrox said:
I got pretty much libertarian

Someone to join me in wisdom, though you are to the left of me I must say.
 
5, -2. Bottom right quadrant. Near nobody famous.

That quiz pretty accurately describes me: a moderate, conservative leaning libertarian.
 
The Real McCoy said:
5, -2. Bottom right quadrant. Near nobody famous.

That quiz pretty accurately describes me: a moderate, conservative leaning libertarian.

A moderate libertarian eh? You might want to go to see the Libertarian Reform Caucus, of which I am a member, or the Holistic Politics site. I myself am thinking of founding a new party in the future called the Liberal Party. Of course when I refer to liberal I am not refferring to the socialist style of modern liberals, but classical liberalism and the free market mixed with some green and conservative ideals.
 
Just another leftie Lunatic:

Economic Left/Right: -7.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.31
 
No, it's just that not many conservatives have opted to take this test thus far....they'll be along.
 
This site is actually very balanced. We've got communists, socialists, liberals, moderates, libertarians, conservatives, right wing nuts and a neo nazi or two.
 
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