Mostly agree with your take that people don't have time to parse how the government is helping them. Worth noting that at least some of the ~40% of seniors who don't think they benefit from government social programs probably feel that they earned their Social Security and Medicare through the payroll taxes they paid throughout their entire careers, which is not a totally unfair take frankly. I do like the idea of an annual benefits readout per person - would be easier to get there if we fully automated the tax/subsidy system.
Mostly agree with your take that people don't have time to parse how the government is helping them. Worth noting that at least some of the ~40% of seniors who don't think they benefit from government social programs probably feel that they earned their Social Security and Medicare through the payroll taxes they paid throughout their entire careers, which is not a totally unfair take frankly. I do like the idea of an annual benefits readout per person - would be easier to get there if we fully automated the tax/subsidy system.
We have started doing this by getting people to speak up at meetings of LOCAL elected officials here in red rural Michigan.
https://open.substack.com/pub/sarahagreen1/p/local-action-for-democracy