A question of causation: success?

[Richard]

I believe that because I'm a conservative, and my family are conservative, I've been brought up with ambition in life and a drive to succeed.  I do not consider the world to owe me anything, or that I owe the world anything.  I do not want handouts and I want to live confortably and support a family.  That is what my conservative family values are.

The causation is:

Because I'm a conservative -> I will succeed in life and have enough to live comfortably.

[Gabu]

I'm having a hard time answering the question because I don't exactly buy the notion that being successful and/or rich comes hand-in-hand with being conservative (and presumably, does not come with being liberal).

[J.R. Brown]

I believe that because I'm a conservative, and my family are conservative, I've been brought up with ambition in life and a drive to succeed.  I do not consider the world to owe me anything, or that I owe the world anything.  I do not want handouts and I want to live confortably and support a family.  That is what my conservative family values are.

The causation is:

Because I'm a conservative -> I will succeed in life and have enough to live comfortably.

I believe that success means something different for everybody. To you its of monetary value and that's perfectly fine. My liberal upbringing has taught me to never leave anybody behind and do not step on people for my personal gain.

If I were fairly wealthy and had accomplished a lot of personal gains, I don't think I would be satisfied with my life. There's something inside of me that makes me want to help people no matter what the consequences to my own life doing that may bring. At the same time I don't ask for any "handouts", I do ask that we take care of our children and the elderly. Provide them with adequate healthcare and a means to live comfortably.

If I let simple men and women who work their whole lives to support their families get trampled over by the selfish who's only goal in life is to support themselves and give nothing in return to their fellow man, I would consider my life unsuccessful.

The causation is:

Because I'm liberal -> Some hard working folks won't be destroyed by corporate America. If they go down, I'll go down with them.

[opebo]

Your 'success' is determined primarily by your economic class.  Naturally, rich people want to congratulate themselves by claiming credit for things that were mostly handed to them so they adopt conservative economic views that flatter them.  For example the absurd idea that 'hard work' has anything to do with 'success' - lower paid people almost invariably work 'harder' than higher paid people.

[dazzleman]

It's a little bit of both, but I lean to option 2.

Those who grow up either wealthy or upper middle class definitely have a running start over those who grow up poor.  This makes success easier, but doesn't guarantee it.

Likewise, growing up poor doesn't preclude success, if one grows up with the right values and attitudes.  Sometimes, the "hunger" (not physical) that a poor person feels for recognition, social standing and luxuries is a powerful propellant to success, when combined with the right values and attitudes.

For those who are poor, I think conservatives have a much greater chance of ultimately achieving success.  Why?  Because attitude, more than anything else, determines success.  The liberal attitude has become essentially a somewhat less severe version of the fantasy that opebo keeps peddling - that those born into lesser circumstances stand no chance of success.  If you believe that, why even try?  People who believe it, and they tend to be Democrats, usually don't try, and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. 

But those who believe they have a shot at success, however difficult, are much more likely to be conservative, because conservatism doesn't preach a victim/perpetrator view of economics.  The result is that people of lesser circumstances, who have a conservative rather than liberal political viewpoint, stand a much greater chance of financial success.

[ian]

Because people grow up rich, they turn into Republicans.  I've seen it happen a zillion times.