"Left-leaning regions of the United States and elsewhere in the world among the richest? When Japan and South Korea sought to become economic powerhouses in the later 20th century, they adopted Leftist policies such as strong public education, universal healthcare and increased gender equality - if countries seeking to compete in capitalist arenas adopt broadly Leftist policies, then how do we explain why Leftists are always talking about overthrowing capitalism?"
"The terms 'left' and 'right' come from the seating arrangements in the National Assembly during the French Revolution, where the combatants used the medieval estate groupings to define their battle lines. According to their writings, land-owning aristocrats (the Second Estate) were the party of the Right, while the interests of nearly everyone else (the Third Estate) belonged to the Left."
"This Third Estate included peasants working for the landowners but also every other kind of business owner and worker. Decades later, Karl Marx offered a different analysis of capitalism: he put owners of both land and businesses together on one side (the bourgeoisie), while grouping workers from fields and factories on the other side (the proletariat) in a single, world-wide class struggle."
Left and Right originated from seating in the National Assembly during the French Revolution, with land-owning aristocrats associated with the Right and the Third Estate on the Left. The Third Estate included peasants as well as business owners and workers. Karl Marx later recast the divide as bourgeoisie versus proletariat in a global class struggle. Modern realities produce paradoxes: left-leaning regions can be wealthy, and countries pursuing industrial growth adopted Leftist social policies. These contradictions show that class, policy choices and voter behavior do not map cleanly onto a simple Left–Right spectrum.
Read at Aeon
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