I get two calls a day from a random phone number asking if I want to sign up for government health care or unemployment or to receive some kind of insurance. At this point, the root idea of getting help from the government is purely functioning in the service of scamming the elderly and people with poor English skills.
Cultural decay at its absolute worst. Not only are you told to be exclusively responsible for yourself, but you're made to fear any interaction with anything resembling a government entity.
I basically assume almost everything is a scam, because I'm almost always right. I hate the kind of person it's made me into, cynical, distrustful. I feel like I'm paranoid, but It's only paranoia when they're not out to get you.
And then you get the fallout from it, because despite never asking for help people will get pissed off that you didn't notice something was wrong and help them.
See: The conspiracies coming out of western North Carolina.
