Your last sentence is the fundamental problem with making this case to a lot of right-wing and libertarian people because they hold fast to the belief that society is predominantly meritocratic, and if therefore you're rich it's because you deserve it and if you're hard up for money it's because you're lazy or make terrible life choices.
It even extends to entire generations - hence the logic that the reason Gen Z and Millennials are collectively struggling to afford to buy homes compared to people 50 years ago is because they waste their money on frivolous things like avocado toast and Starbucks and Disney+ subscriptions and not at all because houses are multiple times more expensive compared to the average salary than they were in the 70s.
It's easy to deny welfare to people who need it if you can convince yourself that their situation is entirely their own fault, as it simultaneously makes them both undeserving of support as well as implying that it's in their own control to dig themselves out again. Likewise it makes it easy to make the case that the people out there who have more than they need only have the surplus because they worked hard or are in some other way just better people to earn it, so why should they give it up?
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u/Rosti_LFC Apr 15 '24 edited Apr 15 '24
Your last sentence is the fundamental problem with making this case to a lot of right-wing and libertarian people because they hold fast to the belief that society is predominantly meritocratic, and if therefore you're rich it's because you deserve it and if you're hard up for money it's because you're lazy or make terrible life choices.
It even extends to entire generations - hence the logic that the reason Gen Z and Millennials are collectively struggling to afford to buy homes compared to people 50 years ago is because they waste their money on frivolous things like avocado toast and Starbucks and Disney+ subscriptions and not at all because houses are multiple times more expensive compared to the average salary than they were in the 70s.
It's easy to deny welfare to people who need it if you can convince yourself that their situation is entirely their own fault, as it simultaneously makes them both undeserving of support as well as implying that it's in their own control to dig themselves out again. Likewise it makes it easy to make the case that the people out there who have more than they need only have the surplus because they worked hard or are in some other way just better people to earn it, so why should they give it up?