Generally, it is the fact that right-wing entails focus on businesses and private property owners, and left-wing entails direct focus on the economic wellbeing of everyone and a more egalitarian society.

In more extreme cases (which I agree for in terms of clarity and fairness, but which is not really a consensus) left-wing is seen as actual socialism (i.e. collectively/socially owned enterprises) and right-wing is capitalism (i.e. private property and its operation for profit). This makes a useful and clear distinction in relation to economic policy and is not dictated by the hegemony of one option. It also makes centrism virtually impossible, which is good, because the meaning of “center” drifts radically between cultures, and most people tend to just associate with whatever is predominant in their culture while calling themselves such.

Here is how voters of neighboring Canada have put themselves on a political compass, on average, in relation to their party of choice. Note that liberals are very much not in the center, and more right-wing, while conservatives as well as People’s party (don’t look at the name, it’s seen as far right even by American metrics), predictably, are extremely authoritarian-right.

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