First, to even talk about it you need to specify at least the locality. “Left” (or, say, “liberal”) in the US means something different from what “left” (or “liberal”) means in Europe.
“Left” and “liberal” in the US and “left” in Europe mean more-or-less similar things, whereas “liberal” in Europe often means something else entirely. (I once made a longer comment about that somewhere, I’ll link to it when I find it. EDIT: here it is.)
I meant in a relative sense, not in an absolute one: AFAIK, Obama is more “left” than his competition (other mainstream American politicians), and Merkel is less “left” than her competition (other mainstream German politicians), where “left” in both cases refers to the south-westwards direction (direction, not region) on the Political Compass. AFAIK “liberal” in the US also generally refers to that direction, whereas ISTM that in Europe it often refers to the eastward direction.
Yes. in a relative sense I think left and right mean the same things.
Liberal is Europe refers to southwards on the compass. UK liberals wanted that the UK gets rid of nuclear weapons because they considered them too expensive.
In Europe we also tend to speak about neoliberalism. That basically means the Washington consensus policies and all the policies for which corporate money pays.
That means things like free trade agreements like NAFTA, putting children year ealier into school so that they are sooner available to join the workforce, taking political power away from states and cities, PPP, reducing taxes and the social safety net.
It depends when in time you compare them. Merkel did come out against a federal minimum wage at one point (during the election). IMO, that is more “right-wing” in the sense people usually mean by it (although I don’t particularly like the term). As far as I know, Obama has never publicly criticized the federal minimum wage.
Basically both politicans don’t want to change anything about the minimum wage but stay with the status quo.
The German solution was over long time to have binding contracts between employers and unions about what minimum wage had to be payed in certain sectors.
Even employers in that sector that didn’t engage in the negotions were supposed to be bound by them.
Some sectors such as temp work then has gotten by law a minimum wage that pays €7.50 = $9.97 because there no binding labor contracts.
That a lot higher than the US minimum wage of $7.25 = €5.44.
It fairly recent in Germany that the left started to call for a minimum wage. I think nearly nobody who calls for a minimum wage in Germany would feel that he reached much if the minimum wage would be at US levels.
Obama certainly doesn’t try to get the minimum wage raised to the kind of level that the people who call for a minimum wage in Germany want to have.
“Left” and “liberal” in the US and “left” in Europe mean more-or-less similar things, whereas “liberal” in Europe often means something else entirely. (I once made a longer comment about that somewhere, I’ll link to it when I find it. EDIT: here it is.)
Obama is considered left in the US.
From a German perspective he’s a lot more right than Angela Merkel who Germany’s right wing chancelor.
Angela Merkel wouldn’t put the government employee who exposed torture into prison while not charging anyone who tortured with crimes.
I meant in a relative sense, not in an absolute one: AFAIK, Obama is more “left” than his competition (other mainstream American politicians), and Merkel is less “left” than her competition (other mainstream German politicians), where “left” in both cases refers to the south-westwards direction (direction, not region) on the Political Compass. AFAIK “liberal” in the US also generally refers to that direction, whereas ISTM that in Europe it often refers to the eastward direction.
Yes. in a relative sense I think left and right mean the same things.
Liberal is Europe refers to southwards on the compass. UK liberals wanted that the UK gets rid of nuclear weapons because they considered them too expensive.
In Europe we also tend to speak about neoliberalism. That basically means the Washington consensus policies and all the policies for which corporate money pays. That means things like free trade agreements like NAFTA, putting children year ealier into school so that they are sooner available to join the workforce, taking political power away from states and cities, PPP, reducing taxes and the social safety net.
Yes, I guess that one was the meaning I was familiar with. (The Italian Liberal Party is in a centre-right coalition.)
That depends on the issue in question.
Could you give an example where Obama pushes a left policy that’s more left than Merkel’s position on the same issue?
It depends when in time you compare them. Merkel did come out against a federal minimum wage at one point (during the election). IMO, that is more “right-wing” in the sense people usually mean by it (although I don’t particularly like the term). As far as I know, Obama has never publicly criticized the federal minimum wage.
Basically both politicans don’t want to change anything about the minimum wage but stay with the status quo.
The German solution was over long time to have binding contracts between employers and unions about what minimum wage had to be payed in certain sectors.
Even employers in that sector that didn’t engage in the negotions were supposed to be bound by them.
Some sectors such as temp work then has gotten by law a minimum wage that pays €7.50 = $9.97 because there no binding labor contracts. That a lot higher than the US minimum wage of $7.25 = €5.44.
It fairly recent in Germany that the left started to call for a minimum wage. I think nearly nobody who calls for a minimum wage in Germany would feel that he reached much if the minimum wage would be at US levels.
Obama certainly doesn’t try to get the minimum wage raised to the kind of level that the people who call for a minimum wage in Germany want to have.
I haven’t been paying that much attention to German economic policy.