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...

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.

I spent a decade working with people that were physically and intellectually disabled and got to see first hand of all the ways that the families took as much advantage of government programs as they possibly could. The organization that I worked for had the primary purpose of getting families more resources from welfare programs. I don't blame them nor am I hugely angry at them because the current system we have keeps people dependant on receiving welfare. Why would someone risk getting a minimum wage job if them receiving income puts their foodtamps, free cell phone plan, reduced rent prices, free transportation, free healthcare, etc at risk?

Government welfare is a cancer that holllows out and keeps people down and ensures that individuals and families don't fix their lives and just keep feeding their bad habits.

Yes, there are a small minority that are in brutal situations our of pure chance, but the mass majority are not that.

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