There's a parallel between welfare and passive gains from diversified investments; yet as you point out, government welfare is tracked and very visible, while p

There's a parallel between welfare and passive gains from diversified investments; yet as you point out, government welfare is tracked and very visible, while private investments are far more opaque. Part of the wealth that workers create is paid in taxes to the government; another part is paid to the shareholders of the company they work for, to the bank they get their mortgage from, and so forth. The latter is equivalent to an hidden tax, part of which goes toward a form of private welfare that's proportional to an individual's wealth. People get quite angry about government welfare, particularly if the recipient seems undeserving of it. Yet they have no problem with the passive income from billionaires, even if it ultimately amounts to the same thing.