Ebbie, the first line of Anna Karenin goes something like that.

As a liberal, I've formed the idea that American conservatives have a root notion of economics as a game. It's a spirited, lively, and a seductive way of looking at life, but it may still be wrong. One feels a spoilsport to hold an opposing view. That's part of why it's impossible to discuss hunger as an issue here--all anyone will say is to vent hostility at people in the supermarket line using food stamps to buy unhealthy foods, and wearing jewelry, and having kids they can't afford to take care of, and so on, until you have to give up, and agree that yes, that must be the problem--the poor people have all the money. That's ruining everything.

But then the whole liberal/conservative thing is another way of making a game of thinking about things.