Degrowth

There wasn’t some grand conspiracy to implement it, all that happened was the rich being opportunistic and taking advantage of a broken system as per usual.

Does anybody truly believe that conservatives behind these programs believed they were giving free money to help out poor people? That goes directly against their usual platform.

In my opinion, the thing you're describing, where rich people convince politicians to give them money, while selling it as a way to make poor people wealthier, is a grand conspiracy, and the politicians were in on it.

It's obvious if you compare it to an actual alternative: Take the same money and instead of giving it to rich people, use it to help poor people start small businesses through grants, tax breaks, and discounted loans.

I think it couldn't be more blatantly obvious, but everybody is entitled to their own educated opinion.