Waiting for opportunity

I find it ironic that my proposal the government should step in to make our society more equal should be greeted so skeptically.   Survey after survey shows the American public feels that opportunity is unequal in our society and most respondents feel the government should step in an make things more fair.   The sticking point is how that should happen.  I think most people feel the government fairy should wave his or her bureaucratic wand and all of a sudden equality will break out.  Centuries of prejudice will evaporate and poverty stricken minimum wage slaves will be dancing in the street.  It doesn't work that way.  To incentivize the poor will take money and it has to come from somewhere.  A guaranteed minimum income is the surest way to eliminate poverty immediately from the supposedly richest nation on earth.  Yes, some will abuse the program, but that happens in all strata of society.   Many if not most of the poor will take advantage of their new found economic freedom to educate themselves and their children and seek opportunities to rise further.  Their new purchasing power will push the economy forward to the benefit of all.  Of course it is mostly a pipe dream, since so many who do not grudge the rich the many government subsidies which tilt the field in their direction.  We give the wealthiest among us billions of dollars in tax breaks, but balk at the idea of direct payments to the poor.  Maybe we just need a fancy name for the program.  But without something along these lines, inequality will continue to grow and wringing our hands and demanding that something be done is not going to cut it.