What is the proper balance between personal responsibility and collective responsibility?

I think that if you can distill the difference between conservatives and liberals down to a most basic premise, you would look at personal and collective responsibility. Conservatives prefer more personal responsibility and are more suspicious of collective responsibility. Liberals believe we have a greater collective responsibility.

Why does each group believe what they believe? How would you define the ideal extent of personal or collective responsibility using examples from the real world?

If you have pet peeves, they might be good to use as examples. If you want to use someone else’s pet peeve as a place to start your discussion from, feel free. If you want to speak more theoretically, that’s fine, too.