If it wasn't for those welfare programs, everybody under a certain income level would be forced to work 2 jobs, or 12-16hrs a day 6 days a week just to be able to live. The cost of living isn't terribly high in my area, but 2 people in a household making $10/hr 40 hrs a week with 2 kids to feed is dirt freaking poor. I'm talking about living in a 20 year old trailer and can't even afford basic cable kinda poor. To live middle class in this area with 2 kids, you'd need to be pulling $65-70k minimum from the household. Engineers only make slightly more than that in my area. So to live middle class, have a stay at home wife and 2 kids you need to make engineer level pay, or better. The bar shouldn't be set that high for middle class living.
Meanwhile average CEO pay has skyrocketed from 10-20x average in the 60s to 400-500x average in post 2000 era, when in the 60s you used to be able to work at a place like a steel mill and bring home enough money to raise a family and have a stay at home wife. You just can't do that anymore. Rather than be content with the way things are, people need to start demanding the top 1% come off of some of their money and start paying the people at the bottom a little more. This trickle down economy isn't working. The top 1-5% are looking below and watching the people lower fight tooth and nail for the scraps at the bottom of the barrel. That doesn't bring out the best in people, it brings out a certain level of viciousness, and ruthlessness, drives a few people into doing illegal activities to make money, etc. Ask most drug dealers why they deal drugs, and I guarantee most of them will say its because they didn't know how to make a decent living any other way. The economy is partly to blame for driving people into desperation.