International Use
In Australia and New Zealand, a roughly equivalent insult of chardonnay socialist; in the United Kingdom phrases such as champagne socialist and Bollinger Bolshevik are preferred, and in France such people are referred to as the gauche caviar ("caviar left"). In Portugal "Esquerda caviar" is used, basically a direct translation of the French term. In Germany "Toskana Fraktion" is used. In Italy, the term "radical chic" (borrowed from American journalist Tom Wolfe's satirical 1970 book Radical Chic & Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers) is used. In Turkey they are known as tatlısu solcusu, tatlısu sosyalisti ("freshwater socialist") who promote downgrading of personal lifestyles for the sake of people while they act the opposite. The adjective of freshwater is also used for people who promotes concepts when they are popular and blame the same concepts while they are not as popular as it used to be.
In the Netherlands, a near equivalent of "limousine liberal" would be "salon socialist". The point of salon socialists, however, is not that they do not spend money charitably, but rather that they are too high to be actively involved in the class struggle. Charity is seen as a capitalist and conservative project, because it leaves the alleged social structures of hegemony intact, and would even reinforce them (by making the poor dependent on the rich). Charity also implies that mandatory taxation is not needed, or need not collect sufficient funds.
In Poland, the rough equivalent of this term is "coffee shop revolutionist" meaning journalists, poets or any other intellectuals who criticize capitalism and free market mechanisms in their publications, but have a generally weak understanding of economy because of living in the ivory tower of salon life, so they have no idea about the real life of the poor.
In Japan, the rough equivalent of this term is "Botchan Sayoku" (leftist from rich family who is ignorant of the real world). Yukio Hatoyama, former Japanese Prime Minister, is by some considered to be a "Botchan Sayoku".
Read more about this topic: Limousine Liberal