> Why not just.. well, let poor people come first? "Poor people" aren't a unified political coalition in the US. For various reasons, you can't do political f

> Why not just.. well, let poor people come first? "Poor people" aren't a unified political coalition in the US. For various reasons, you can't do political favors for poor people and expect them to reliably vote for you. Black people are a unified political coalition in the US. I recommend reading about Bueno de Mesquita's model of selectorate theory for understanding how stable political patronage networks operate; the model is very insightful for cases like this.