Oh but it does. It simplifies administration, and even more importantly, it's a great social unifier. People hate it when other people get something they don't;

Oh but it does. It simplifies administration, and even more importantly, it's a great social unifier. People hate it when other people get something they don't; if you look at a lot of public services (healthcare, education, transport, arts), even when systems are similar on paper, whether the high-income and wealthy "buy in" to the publicly provided service or not makes a huge difference in whether it succeeds.