However, the more pressing issue is whether the existing democracy is inherently designed to marginalize those below a certain economic threshold. I think it is.
Exactly. The people hurt most by this are lower income Americans, many of them immigrants, for whom these programs are a golden ticket out of poverty. Absolutely shameful what they are destroying here.
This attitude speaks to a rather severe amount of privilege that not all enjoy. If you “cause economic damage” that then raises prices, you hurt the poorest in rather large ways.
It isn't that anybody wants to hurt the poor. It is that people want the poor to take care of themselves.
I know I get jealous when I think of a certain girl I know who dropped out of high school and had a few kids and collected welfare to pay for it. I worked hard to pay for my college education, now I'm in part paying for her bad decisions, my share of her support could be spent on a widget I want instead.
Note that I intentionally picked he worst, least sympathetic example of a poor person: someone who could have made something of her life by choose not to. I also know a poor person who is sympathetic: born with Downs Syndrome he will never be more than assistant usher in the local theater (the head usher - some kid who started two weeks ago - needs to handle the hard situations). As such he can never actually make a good living and most people are willing to spare some change to support him.
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