system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Does Liberal government mean 'hands off from government' or 'human rights' or both?

ELI5:  Does Liberal government mean 'hands off from government' or 'human rights' or both?

I often see Liberal vs. Conservative.  Socialist vs. Capitalist.  While I understand the basic ideas, I still have the question about liberal governments.  Are they non-interventionist, as in free markets, like Capitalists?  Or, are they more socialist, improving social programs and the lives of citizens?


Edit:  Thank you to everyone for your responses.  I definitely have a clearer understanding now.  Much appreciated!
gpt
The term "Liberal" basically means "pro freedom". The challenge is that there are a couple of different kinds of freedoms. 

Classical liberals, like John Locke, Adam Smith, and the founders of the United States, were big on what we sometimes call "negative freedoms" - guarantees that the government can't stop you from doing certain things. These usually include things like freedom of speech, religious freedom, and the right to do whatever you want with your own property. 

There are also "positive freedoms", things which the government has to provide to you in order to make the other freedoms secure and meaningful. For example, the right to vote, the right to a fair trial, and so on. Over time, as the negative freedoms became accepted as a given, liberal thinkers became more concerned with adding more of the positive freedoms. 

It's important to remember that the meaning of "conservative" has changed even more than "liberal" over this time period. Classical conservatives were mostly monarchists, believing that society should be controlled by elites because most people were too uneducated or biased to make good decisions about government. As classical liberalism became more and more widely accepted, later conservatives became more concerned that some of the positive rights were interfering with the negative rights. 

A simple example is with taxation and infrastructure - using taxpayer money to build extensive roads, dams, and so on is a modern liberal idea, based on the argument that everyone in society benefits from these things. Classical liberals and some modern conservatives would argue that taxing people more than the bare minimum to maintain a functioning government, legal system, and national defence force is an excessive infringement on people's right to do what they want with their money.