[oil]

You don't just get bennefits if you voted Democrat though.. I think state redistribution of wealth is much more liable to be born of genuine altruism on the part of those who try to implement social welfare policies. While interpersonal relationships are often riddled with the kind of hubris and so on as you mentioned above, when you start to abstract away to something like the state/citizen relationship, those kinds of issues tend to dissapate. (If for no more simple reason than that the politicians implementing these programs have very little real contact with those they're trying to help).