[sykhic]

We Americans have a pathological fear of socialism and since the 1980s it's been ingrained in the collective psyche of the nation that government is bad. You'll hear people talk about how government can't do anything right but we have the greatest military in the world. Such contradictions are endemic to the right leaning people of the country. Left leaning people of the country have a differing set of contradictions.

There is also a coupled fear of a poor person getting something they don't deserve. This has foundations in religion and in the development of the nation. There was a time (over a hundred years ago) when a man(family) could do it on their own and live off the land. This inculcated in us the idea that being poor is associated with being a slouch. Such a time has long since passed but that ethos is still in the collective consciousness.

There is also a pathological fear of taxes. It is widely believed that government is always more inefficient than a privatized solution. We had a Vice-Presidential candidate laugh at the notion that paying taxes is patriot and this while her son was in the military during a time of war! A lot of people think of themselves as some sort of Daniel Boone character that can do it on their own if only government got out of the way.

We do have a national healthcare system for elderly, members of the military, and most children. Everyone else can fend for themselves.