Supportism

About

Supportism is the political view that society has a responsibility to help maintain its members, and that its members (in turn) have some responsibility to society.

context

Supportism is one of two primary views currently in combat over the direction in which United States policy should go, especially in the areas of healthcare and social welfare, the other view being frontierism.

expressions

Supportism is commonly expressed with statements such as:

• there should be a social safety net
  • because even the most self-sufficient person can run into bad luck and need a little help and private charity has historically been woefully inadequate
• poor people are economically unproductive mostly because they're poor
  • ...as opposed to "people become poor because they're economically unproductive"
• providing easy access to contraception (including free access where necessary) saves money in the long run
• easy access to medical care (including free access where necessary) saves money in the long run
• sex education reduces unwanted pregnancies
• legal/safe abortion leads to a saner society
• income inequality is bad
• pollution is bad
• workers deserve universal safety standards

political labels

Expressions of supportism are often found among those who self-identify as liberal or socialist.

Etymology

This term was first detailed in a Google+ post on 2012-04-01. A brief web search did not turn up any prior usages of the word.