I routinely encounter educated adults who claim it’s unfair that they’ve paid taxes their entire lives only to receive nothing when people living on welfare, food stamps, Medicaid, or disability get everything provided. It is astonishing to me that people think that they are missing out on that life. While I’m sure fraud exists, living off the system is not glamorous or the path most choose intentionally. How can anyone, unemployable and with a disability, support themselves on $900/month? This isn’t big money. We can argue about the role of government vs charity. But I just don’t get that attitude, that need to tighten the screws on what in many cases is someone’s only option.

There's been at least a half-century of Republican propaganda demonizing the poor who rely on these services.

It started getting particularly nasty with Reagan's "welfare queens" campaign, which focused on a woman incarcerated for egregious fraud and portrayed her case as if it were the norm, playing not only on fears that welfare was rife with fraud and abuse but also on prejudices against women and non-whites.

To this day, many people envision the welfare system as creating a class of people living luxurious lives off the taxpayer's dime without having to do any work themselves. That this is a far more accurate description of the very representatives still benefiting from such propaganda is a salient historical irony.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welfare_queen See: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/12/20/255819681...

> But I just don’t get that attitude, that need to tighten the screws on what in many cases is someone’s only option.

They look at upsides, but don't look at downsides. A case of "grass is always greener on the other side". Plus maybe small lack of empathy.

„Man muß das Geld dort nehmen, wo es zu finden ist – bei den Armen. Zwar haben sie wenig, aber sie sind zahlreich.“ ―Ettore Petrolini - https://gutezitate.com/zitat/138869

Very right.

You might find the documentary Waging a Living eye-opening - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47971968