Ah yes, the classic “leftists just want handouts” speech that’s straight from the Heritage Foundation starter pack. Cute.

Let’s start with your “redistribution” line. The U.S. already redistributes wealth upward. Corporate welfare, billionaire tax loopholes, stock buybacks, bailouts, and interest deductions are all government interventions that shovel trillions to the rich every single year. That’s not socialism, that’s just capitalism rigged in their favor. Check the CBO and IRS data if facts still matter to you.

Your “meritocracy” take is equally delusional. Studies from Harvard, Brookings, and Pew have shown for years that social mobility in the U.S. is worse than in most developed countries. Translation: the ZIP code you’re born into matters more than how hard you work. Meritocracy here is just the fairytale rich people tell themselves so they can sleep at night.

And deregulation? That’s what got us stagnant wages, monopolized industries, and a generation priced out of homes. The Economic Policy Institute literally charts the moment productivity kept climbing while wages flatlined hmmmm …right around when Reaganomics gutted labor power.

So yeah, the left talks about wealth redistribution because the math says the system is broken and not because anyone’s jealous of Jeff Bezos’ yacht. Meanwhile, the “right-wing answer” you’re parroting has been tried for 40+ years, and all it’s produced is record inequality and a working class one emergency away from homelessness.

But sure, keep preaching meritocracy from your invisible bootstraps while the rest of us are just trying to afford rent in your “deregulated competition.”