So these comments are mine but if you go to the site the artist comments on the strip. Not all the time but definitely more frequently in the last few years over early on. This is sorta a common shtick I see where the progressive ideals are secretly for personal greedy reasons. I always love it. It is funny because I do see progressive causes from a greedy perspective. I would like all the people I interact with as I move through society to be educated and healthy. I like public spaces. I like well maintained infrastructure. and I'm not afraid to pay taxes for it, provided taxes are collected progressively. People should be able to make a decent wage.
This message isn't directed strictly at you, OP, it's just an argument I find myself repeating and it aligns with what you're saying.
Social security, job security, livable wages, class solidarity and affordable universal healthcare are all very much self-serving goals. Even if you care nothing about the poor, the sick, the unemployed or anyone else, the security and benefits you gain from socialised bargaining power will most likely benefit you.
Unless you're born rich enough that none of these things matter to you, you'll probably never ascend into that class either. Hard work alone doesn't get you wealthy any more, it just makes you a more exploitable slave.
If you want a better life, progressive economic ideals are the best wagon you can jump on. Forget about religion, immigrants, race, trans bathrooms and all that - we can sort that out separately, but economic policy at least will unambiguously serve you too.
Note on the last bit: I expect that improving material conditions will lower the resistance to improvement of social conditions too and rob bigotry of much of its fuel.
