There are many pundits and people that rail against general welfare programs that provide lower income and impoverished people with benefits such as food stamps, housing assistance, an earned income tax credit, health insurance such as Medicaid, and supplemental aid, as well as everything else local, State, or Federal, which takes money from the government and its taxpayers and doles it out seemingly somewhat indiscriminately to people as grossly unfair and imprudent. Those that complain the loudest may indeed have legitimate points that they make, for government "hand-outs" are rife with fraud, bureaucracy, incompetency, and inefficiencies, in addition to the fact that none of these programs ever appear to get smaller year by year. Yet, all of these benefits are in their intention, provided to those that have little or nothing, in this the richest nation the world has ever known, in which, this government and its people have a duty to take care of those that have little or no part of the American dream, but live instead, its nightmare.
On the other hand, far less talked about, is the massive welfare for the rich, that is to say, not specific individuals, but the corporate entities that the government, for whatever reason, has stepped into on behalf of the connected to prop up, subsidize, forgive, extend, and help to the tune of billions upon billions of dollars. For instance, banking institutions appear to be the most favored group to have received financial help from the government, repeatedly, and therefore its taxpayers, in which at critical points, for example, the Savings & Loan crisis, of the 1980s through the 1990s, ultimately resulted in the closure of over 1,000 Savings & Loan institutions, with Wikipedia.com reporting an: "…estimated cost of the crisis to around $160.1 billion." Then, during the banking crisis and meltdown of 2007-2009, the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP) as well as the separate bailouts of behemoths Fannie Mae and, Freddie Mac, in addition to institutions such as AIG, General Motors, and Chrysler, came to a staggering total as estimated by propublica.org of $625.7 billion dollars.
These bailouts of institutions are primarily for the benefit and specific stabilization of those particular institutions, of which, the American people as a whole, have no or little voice in the matter, so that these entities are thereby labeled as being "too big to fail" and consequently, are immune to bad business decisions, and can therefore pay exceedingly well its executives and management teams, so that when times are good they will mint millions upon millions for themselves, and when times are bad, they know that they can stick the government and its taxpayers with the full bill for their imprudence of monetary assets, which is exactly what has transpired.
This means that certain big corporations in this country, are often able to work hand in glove with the government, so that, their bad decisions are bailed out, in addition to being favored in the first place by their government sponsors; whereas, the people that are born into abject circumstances, are thereby stuck with poor housing, poor health options, pathetic schools, and are made to essentially beg, hat in hand, for their government benefits, of which, what they receive from their government is just enough to live another day but never enough to allow them the opportunity to actually live, so that there is a massive divide between those that profess a belief in the "free" enterprise system that provides these favored few with an economic safety net, tax benefits, and fat salaries, contrasted against those that are considered to be the refuse of this country, tired, poor, and wretched.