Quote:
Originally Posted by Damien
Or the age where they benefit most from it.
People vote in their best interests. It's rarely about ideology.
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To some extent, but it's more about being older and wiser.
Many school leavers are very idealist and don't appreciate that things are not as straight forward as they first appear. Then, over the years, experience tells you that your original beliefs were just nieve.
That certainly happened to me, and I have heard many accounts of such transformation. It doesn't happen so much the other way around, however, although some experiences (eg a bad boss) can turn some Tory supporters into Labour supporters.
In my case, I still believe that those who are poor should be helped out of their dire situation rather than exploited, that people should be treated equally and paid in line with their skills and abilities rather than for reasons connected with irrelevant factors, such as gender or race. I believe that money should be distributed more fairly but that this should be achieved by increased take home pay rather than through taxation or benefits. The genuinely disabled should be able to get better financial assistance and help and the people who try to cheat the system should be punished severely. All the tax loopholes exploited by the wealthy should be closed down, made easier by simpler laws. And so on.
The change for me was seeing what was possible and what was not, and the realisation that socialism did not ultimately work for anyone, including the poor. My core beliefs remain the same. It's the knowledge of how best to achieve them that has changed.