>It would seem many people agree that communism doesn't fit
>human nature - why they feel compelled to break it up into
>smaller pieces and force-feed it piece by piece re-instituting
>the same problems but in a piecemeal fashion is beyond me.

Halfway measures and compromises, mostly. Pure communism doesn't work because people are lazy; pure capitalism doesn't work because people are greedy and because they can solve problems with violence. Just because pure communism is a dumb idea doesn't mean it has nothing to teach us.

That being said, I think a trend towards needs-based financial aid in general has the danger of turning into a tragedy of the commons. If I'm middle class and there's no financial aid, there are diminishing evolutionary returns to having more than a couple children because I can't educate or care for them as well. On the other hand, if all my kids have a reasonable chance to be fed and go to a decent school even if there are thirty of them, from an evolutionary perspective, it's to my advantage to have as many children as possible. Although I wouldn't personally make that choice and a lot of people wouldn't, that the environment encourages/permits it (if true... I don't know that there's actually that much aid out there now) will gradually breed humanity in that direction. Ultimately that's got to collapse under its own weight like a pasture with too many cows.