Conservatism has been called "organized selfishness," so indeed that about sums it up. It's interesting, though, that while this explains the economic conservatism of greedy rich people who have a lot to lose, there's also the fact that many poor people are conservative, such as the poor in patriarchal, feudal places like Saudi Arabia and parts of India and Africa. Clearly, the main factors in those cases are religion and a lack of modernization and education.