Canada

I've called myself a fiscal conservative, and I have a lengthy comment in my history about it. I'm not finding a link.

Most of the proposals by people who call themselves fiscal conservatives don't want to spend money now, and don't want to think of spending money later. This doesn't solve the current issues and does nothing to prevent those issues from recurring in the future. They also seem to think that policing and incarceration are free, and that poor people have no interest in eating or shelter, which means they obviously won't break the law to achieve those goals. They also ignore that a good education for everyone, not just their kids, is one of the best predictors for a financially successful future (and that financially successful people are less of a financial burden to society), and that hungry kids don't learn as well. In spite of that, they don't want to pay for public education. They also don't want to pay for school lunch programs in spite of all the studies showing that wherever they are implemented they provide a net economic benefit of at least 6 to 1.

The only conclusion I can come to is that most people who call themselves fiscal conservatives don't want to spend money, not even wisely, and fail to recognize that the costs will still be there - you just get to choose whether you want to spend it on education and social services or policing and prisons.

I never thought of it that way before. Yeah, it's not like democrats believe money should be pissed away, but conservatives will tell you that spending money on things like human rights is "pissing it away". Gross.