We'd solve a lot of problems in this country if people stopped caring about whether or not someone 'deserves' a public benefit. We are infinitely more judgmental about the poor than we are the rich because we aspire to be rich. So we want to believe if someone is poor it's their own fault.
When the opposite is usually true if you go back to look at the history of how someone came to live in poverty. It was greed and exploitation and inhumane treatment by someone with a lot of $$ who initially caused chaos in their lives. Poverty does cause problems of its own, but check the root cause
The poor dont "deserve" welfare just because they are poor. We as a society it is our duty as human beings to help others. We are all people and we all deserve the right to live a good life. Helping others is part of being a good person. If everyone helped everyone, no one would be helpless.
Related NYC Mayoral Election note: The tell that the Cuomo campaign's gonna have a tough time the last 2 months of the election is that his claim that Mamdani didn't deserve to have his apartment stabilized was met with a "meh".
Because as I understand it, many NYers took that to mean that Cuomo thinks the person Mamdani allegedly "stole" that apartment from didn't deserve it, either. They both deserve it, but New York City doesn't deserve Cuomo-type politicos, who only make things worse.