Good post. I believe it was Thomas Jefferson who said something like this: When the people start voting themselves money, that’s the end of the republic.
It is true that there are always relatively poor people but the kind and beneficiant impulse to help them has been hijacked by strident demands for money by so-called activists and grifting politicians portraying themselves as agents of the beneficial impulse. All the while, making a lot of money for themselves. Dishonest and disgusting.
Actually, I think it was Benjamin Franklin.