One of the main symptoms of the Dunning-Kruger effect is projection, and the incapacity to realize it is projection.
Sufferers will continue to believe they are simply better even in the face of poor grades, poor evaluations, or terrible rep.
So "paying people for their work" is now "throwing money to close the wealth gap."
Well, I guess you're right, can't close the wealth gap if you don't actually pay people.
And I'm sure at the same time you claim government staffers shouldn't be paid cause they didn't earn it, you'll prolly claim the bankers earn every penny of the windfalls they get.
Except for the obvious problem that people from wealth could easily cross the lines on any such holdout and therefore further concentrate power in the hands of the wealthy.
But literally any system that concentrates power with the wealthy, you cape for it and say, "That's just the way it is!"
Any system that attempts to spread power democratically, you get all up in arms, "Why are you throwing money at poor people!!!"
You're not using that word correctly.
And money is kind of important in this nation's politics, right? Of course, there's one certain group who constantly tries to deny that....
Awww....after years of lobbyists and elites

for the wealthy controlling everything on both sides of the aisle, are we ruining your happy Neoconservative/Neoliberal parade?
I'm sure our nation is better off when D.C. private school kids and Ivy League legacy admission trust fund babies are out there snatching up all the entry routes into political power.