Perhaps this isn’t the great philosophical difference between people that I think it is, but I find it significant enough to believe that it may explain at least some of the difference in people’s worldviews…
Working for the legislature, I get to hear a lot of comments and criticisms from people who are not always thrilled about what is going on at the Capitol. One complaint that always makes me chuckle is that “teachers and public employees get too much time off and benefits!” I chuckle not because it’s actually up in the air whether public workers are overpaid in salary and benefits combined compared to similar jobs in the private sector, but because I think people are looking at it from the wrong direction: the problem isn’t that some people get too much vacation, it’s that too many workers don’t get enough.
When I think about the vacation/benefits issue, I think, “Yes, absolutely, all workers should have good health insurance and mandatory vacation, just like other grown-up countries!” However, other people see the same issue and think, “Some people have better benefits than I do. They don’t deserve them, they should have the same terrible benefits I have to deal with!” Instead of bringing everybody up to the same level, they want to drag people down.
Like I said, maybe it’s not a huge difference. But it happens consistently enough such that I think it does represent a view of the world. Some people see the “undeserving” everywhere. Me, I think that we do better when we lift everybody up.