I definitely have mixed feelings on this issue, but, I tend to support being a SAHM/D with government assistance. There are so many types of government assistance; one common one that is frequently overlooked is public schools. I don't have any children in the public schools, but, I do own a home, and I pay property tax, thousand of dollars annually. A good chunk of that goes to pay for public schools. It cost $11,000 per year per student to run the public schools in my district. In contrast, I pay tuition to send my son to my parish Catholic school, because that is something I value. It is worth the extra $3800 per year to send him there, in addition to the $5000 or so I am paying for the public schools. It only costs about $5000 or so, or less than half as much, to educate a child in the Catholic school. Why the descrepency? Not sure why, but technically, every SAHM, no matter what her hubby earns, is getting government assistance if her kids attend public school.
Now, I look at my family of origin. We had four children. We are all grown now, and we all have doctoral level educations. My brothers are attorneys, my sister a PharmD, and I am a MD. My father was injured on the job when I was about 12 years old. The social environment was different in the late 60's than it is today, and he was laid off because of his injury. So, he was 45 years old, without a college level education, working a labor type job, and laid off because of a back injury. I don't think he was malingering. My brother has back problems which have a genetic basis, and I think that I might have them also. But, we work in fields in which we use our brains and not our brawn. I personally know doctors who are totally wheelchair bound, and able to do their job. I know I could. But, my dad couldn't. We lived on "public assistance" all the way from junior high to graduation from undergraduate. That's what you call my dad's SSI payments that he got until we finished college. We also were all bright enough to get scholarships and grants to pay for our undergraduate education. I personally graduated with a total loan balance of $700 at 5% interest. I didn't owe anything else. I got scholarships and grants and worked part time to pay the rest. The situation was similar for my siblings.
My point is: how does an outsider know the specifics of a situation involving a parent who doesn't work? You don't. I give everybody the benefit of the doubt, and I don't want the health or welfare of a child to suffer because the parents don't have enough money to pay for medical care or nutritious food. As a doctor who takes medicaid, I know I would rather be getting the little bit that medicaid pays rather than writing off the total amount owed when a patient can't pay. Morally, I can't turn a patient away because they are indigent, but, why should my family starve because I don't get paid. In our state, low income parents can purchase a health insurance plan through medicaid. So, just because a patient has medicaid doesn't mean they are getting something free, and just because a person works doesn't mean they can afford private health insurance. I try to treat everybody the same, whether they are rich or poor, insured or not. People are people, and we all deserve basic human respect.
I remember when DH was job searching he told me about a position in the DC area and I thought the rate of pay was great. Then he told me about the cost of living there. 
