We live in a world where almost half of Americans have so little empathy that they are enthralled by the idea of putting non-white children in cages and the American political system is completely indifferent to the policy preferences of the average person[0].

It's beyond the bounds of reasonable probability both that a majority of Americans would develop enough empathy to support the idea of a universal social safety net and that policy elites could be motivated to implement such a consensus.

[0] https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/c...