“I’m scared because I don’t trust my government/people generally.”

I've always viewed my fellow Americans as more than a bit schizo because of this view. This is most often expressed by the most fervent believers in their democratic system of choosing representatives, but they then immediately distrust those who they elect. They don't realize that there is no power vacuum that remains intact, and any power not allowed/claimed by their government is conferred to others, usually their employers and the wealthy owners of business.

Also, US conservatives would easily consider the UK among "socialist" countries because of your healthcare system and more generous safety nets. They don't even understand how their own systems work, much less those in other countries.

The basic argument seems to be that Am/Cons aren’t willing to, in their view, pay for the lives of those who do less work than they do.

This argument is perpetuated by the largest con in modern history: that tax collections and bond issues "pay for" federal government spending.

They don't.

Both taxation and bond issuing have their purposes, but none of those is to "fund" spending. It is exactly the other way around with spending funding both. Deficit spending is required to even have excess reserves in the system available to be borrowed.

Who but the most hardened would consider denying basic food and shelter to anyone if "they" didn't have to pay for it? If people understood that their federal government has no limit to what it can spend to improve our society, never needing "our" money to do so, how much would perceptions change and soften?

What is the purpose of a government if not to fulfil the needs of its populace?

This is not only the purpose of government, but also the purpose of money, which is a product of our governments. The government issues the money, not collects it, for this purpose. Collection of money is important to enable management of the money supply and to drive the need for the government's unit of account in the private sector, but it never imparts an additional ability to spend for the public purpose onto that government.

Currency issuing sovereign governments "pay for" their spending by simply paying for it. No one's tax payments are involved, or needed, in that. One simply cannot collect or borrow what doesn't yet exist.