The human psyche is a strange beast. When we hear about a particular person going through a hard time, we are likely to open our hearts and wallets to help. People with little to give will share when they encounter a person in need. However, when it's not a particular person, but instead a nameless faceless group of people, the reaction ranges from indifference, to relief it's not oneself, to more hard-hearted "should have planned better" or "that's what you get when you [a-b-c]". This ranges from the family whose house gets demolished in a tornado (outpouring of help) to an entire city demolished by a hurricane (freeloaders).
What about those in chronic need? They are often demonized by those who have only a handful more. In our unbalanced economy, as more and more money flows uphill to the wealthiest, those who used to live modest comfortable lives are now barely squeaking by paycheck to paycheck. Despite historically low taxes, they feel helpless and victimized, and feel like their taxes are going to give a "free ride" to those who don't deserve it. That is actually true, but it's not going to the people they think. I have seen too many memes and posts online about tax dollars spent on the poor when our country's solvency may be at risk.
When it comes to the U.S budget, the numbers are a little hard to visualize for most people. Our current federal budget is around $6.2T. That's $6200 Billion. How much of that goes to those at the bottom of the economic pyramid?
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