Here in the depth of winter 2021-2022, I'm thinking about the economic concept called "moral hazard." Let's start with this excerpt from a NY Times article of ten years ago:
The cherished American ideal of self-reliance has a flip side: discomfort with the idea of bailouts and safety nets. The notion that even a small portion of such aid might find its way to the undeserving can be enough to scuttle support, or restrict help so drastically that few can use it. The specter of moral hazard haunts a basic tension in American life: to what extent are people responsible for their own problems? The more trouble you’re in, moral hazard suggests, the less we should help.
Shaila Dewan, "Moral Hazard: A Tempest-Tossed Idea," New York Times, Feb. 25, 2012, at https://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/26/business/moral-hazard-as-the-flip-side-of-self-reliance.html