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You're buying into an assumption that there are simply two sides.
When I'm really discussing things, I like to discuss multiple sides of it, ideally before coming to a conclusion.
So, feel free to grab from any of the above and pick and choose what you wish to respond to.
I've literally personally spoken with hundreds of homeless people in LA. I've heard a lot of stories about how they ended up where they are, why they are the way they are, and what is keeping them in their position. For most of the homeless in LA, it really is a choice. They would rather be sustained by the sugar daddy of the government, with a free phone, free food, and free healthcare, than attempt to making something more for themselves. To be fair, a lot of opportunity is disappearing. The government itself has policies that actually not only support and encourage poverty, the government makes rewards of it. For example, a lot of the jails are full of homeless people because it's very easy for a cop to pick up overtime by hassling a homeless person over an offense an otherwise overlooked, but for the persons station in life. Given California's idea of property, the government will then impound whatever the heck they want and keep it until the end of the trial. If someone isn't able to make bail, they are forced to get further behind by being pulled away from their job/resources/whatever, and when they get out, now they have to deal with going back and forth to court. Many of them lack transportation, which results in a non-appearance, which results in another warrant, and hopefully I don't need to explain the rest to you.
So here is the weird thing. You'd think that skipping on cash bail would be a good play, because it would at least give people the opportunity to have their case heard, before they get forced into serving prison time, before they are actually convicted. When the rolled that out in NYC (and I believe SF), it made crime skyrocket. I don't know what to do with it from there, but we apparently have identified two really bad systems.
So what's going on the whole time? The government is taking tax payer dollars to fund this. And the food stamps. And the Medicaid. And the list goes on.
With respect to your earlier comments about the fire department, that isn't socialism, that's a pooled resource. Most people wouldn't mind paying some taxes, as long as it was a reasonable amount, and was going to a reasonable cause. So if tax dollars go to critical infrastructure we all benefit from, I don't think that's a really concern. On the other hand, when government contractors get paid tax dollars to build things, and then the government doesn't get the intellectual property, that's screwing the tax payers. When the IP is being weaponized (i.e., sold to other countries), that means tax payers are literally paying companies to build the tools to attack America with.
Why does anyone trust the government?
Yes, the sacrifices have been worth it. I can say that I have a very close connection with my children. My wife is the angel of the story. She and her mother did some amazing things those first few years to make things happen. 
