Liberalism betweens countries is hardly homogeneous, but the conservative or equivalent ideologies for countries are often nearly unrecognizable and often not the other guy in a two way tug of war. We can debate how effective or efficient these plans have been, or if some have even been counter-productive, but I think we can safely say that various social safety net policies around the world have tended not to be models of ideal efficiency. I'm not going to issue a blanket statement on all of our programs let alone foreign ones, some have been more effective then others, some have been borderline disasters. Also I'm not going to claim the left doesn't try to patch them up or ignore all indicators a given policy is not working well.

Still, there is a tendency of the left, in my opinion anyway, to be both stubborn about changing any program that doesn't include increasing their budget and a bit willfully blind to some of the problems. I'm hardly going to deny the right doesn't try to block a lot of these programs but a popular left scapegoat for why they don't work optimally is sabotage by the right. This may even have some reality behind it, both sides do have elements willing to actively sabotage the other's sides pet projects, but I think it is a rather self-deceptive and even a bit dishonest to use that as the main reason these things aren't working as well as promised. Especially considering many of the same problems attributed here to right-wing sabotage and opposition have occurred in places where there really is no parallel.

and I just remembered you're gone for the weekend and won't have a chance to reply till the thread is likely properly dead, ah well, safe trip. I'd wish you a good time but that doesn't seem likely under the circumstances