Limousine liberal

Limousine Liberal is a derogatory[?] political term for a rich liberal person that expresses a deep concern for poor people yet does not spend any considerable portion of his/her wealth to help poor people. In Australia, a roughly equivalent insult of chardonnay socialist is used. Note that liberal is used here in the same sense as socialist, while on the European continent, these two terms stand in opposition. This reflects the crucial difference - and a source of confusion - between the American liberals that find themselves opposed to conservatives (like republicans), and the Europeans that roughly see liberals as adherents to laissez faire economic policies, in contradistinction to e.g. social democrats. In Dutch, an near equivalent would be "salon socialist", and similar terms will be in use in many other languages. The point of a salon socialist, however, is not that she (though often: he) does not spend money charitably, but rather that she or he is not actively involved in the class struggle. Charity is seen as an at the same time capitalist and conservative project, because it leaves the alleged social structures of exploitation intact, and would even reinforce them.