"When we allowed 20% of the population to assume ownership of 80% of the wealth, forcing everyone else to scramble for scraps"

Allowed? I suppose you mean we didn't tax them at 90% to "redistribute" it.

"the loudest complaints about "socialists" and "redistribution" seem to come from people who need it the most, but don't recognize it."

Or the people that have nothing and would rather have the government give it to them than try and earn it themselves. We do need some social nets, but if those social nets are too large, we create a system of people that feel entitled propped up by the people that are actually working. When that system starts to collapse, there are riots in the streets because there are too many people relying on it.

"The American public, IMO, needn't look much further than a mirror to see the cause of their woes."

There are many countries in Europe that are struggling just as hard (if not harder) than the US. They had all of these social nets that you speak of. What happened?