“It started in South America in the turbulent 1950s when Marxism was making great gains among the poor because of its emphasis on the redistribution of wealth, allowing poor peasants to share in the wealth of the colonial elite and thus upgrade their economic status in life.”
Which, it should be noted, never happened.
The poor in Cuba, for instance, are worse off today than they were 70 years ago under Batista.
Giving people money never improves their economic status in life. All they do is spend the money, the money goes right back to those who had it before, and the poor stay right where they are.