I think the fundamental thing about whether or not you consider social programs using 'other people's money' is whether or not you consider that wealth that is being hoarded to be legitimately someone else's in the first place.

Have you ever stayed 15 minutes late? Not taken a break? Otherwise done work that wasn't actually your job, especially work that should be paid more? Ever think about how 'law and order' types focus on other kinds of theft, but are silent about by FAR the most common one?

Even if you believe that management and investment are important jobs, it's hard to argue that they are millions or even billions of times more important. Particularly when you realize how hard it is to fail once you've gotten past a certain point of wealth.

Our capitalism is a filter that is set up to filter organizations for one, and only one, thing: shareholder value. The consumer doesn't matter, the long term health of the company does not matter, the environment does not matter, the workers don't matter. None of this matters.

The classic libertarian argument is that nobody would work for a company that abuses its employees, or that does not pay them enough. But that's ridiculous. If it's the only company in town and you can't afford to move, you work for them.

If you can't organize, you work for them. If they've just ignored regulations and slapped a 'gig economy sticker' on it, you work for them. If, after decades, you have slowly seen the rights of workers get stripped and income barely budge, you work for them.

And worst of all, Americans truly believe that if you struggle to pay rent, or health care, or anything, then it's actually your own fault. You simply didn't work hard enough. That it's a MORAL FAILURE to be poor because you're trying to take other people's money as 'handouts'.

It's just bizarre and religious and it annoys me to no end how often libertarian/classical liberal/conservative types give us smug anime faces about rationality and facts when they're neck-deep in the cult.

Like, our culture over the past few decades in particular has been shaped by some dudes who turned their dad's Nazi money (literally. LITERALLY) into billions of dollars in propaganda. People believe they're immune to propaganda and then repeat PragerU lines and shit. Absurd.

How much realizing all of this radicalizes you will vary, but I think even Democrats should be aware of just how distorted and broken our society is.