Government programs aren't the only way and very far from the best way imaginable to help people who have fallen on hard times. That's simply bullshit propaganda the government has every incentive to spread: "Put up with us or die in a gutter". But that is a false dichotomy, leaving out churches, donation-based organisations, the simple charity of regular people who would have money to share if they weren't taxed into oblivion and perhaps most importantly: the absence of the poverty the government creates using minimum wage laws and other price controls, central banking and inflation, and the hyper-regulation of large numbers of economic sectors, limiting competition and creating cartels or monopolies.

Just think how you would act if you encountered someone who's hit rock bottom with no government to help them and then assume that most people - given personal financial stabiliy - would act kind and compassionate as well.