It doesn't help that there are so many vastly different ideas of what the interaction between a government and an economy really involves, when you would think it would just be a matter of seeing what it actually does.
I forget which group I wind up lumped in because of it seeming obvious that money doesn't just vanish, so a deficit in the government funds means that money ended up somewhere, most likely the pockets of the people and various businesses, so it seems patently insane to argue in favor of reducing deficits (but how can that be bad!?!? you're reducing a shortfall right? if my home budget has a deficit it's bad!) as though taking money out of pockets is a good thing.
Given how little people (including me, I am not an expert!) understand about what should be the obvious parts of government money policy, it is unsurprising that few understand why certain types of spending wind up making things better all around via fiscal multipliers and such.
MrRoboto points out part of the difficulty here: the idea that they or anyone are producing value which is then being appropriated and used to pay for the lazy is just kinda treated as a fact.
I mean, I've had a brief period when big-L-libertarian nonsense seemed like it might have truth to it, so phrasing it as "the government is robbing you" is something I can understand being a powerful mental tool, but then you are completely ignoring that the government created the money that has said value, and that distributing it is something they are much better at doing than individuals who like to sit on piles of said money as though it is a worthy pursuit.
ARE WE MEN OR DRAGONS?
Being part of the "we who produce things" won't help when that group is also replaced by the "things which produce things" which is what set this discussion in motion, and there is a certain point where there will be no reason to have anyone produce something beyond "wanting a hand crafted item" or whatever, and there will be no reason for anyone to receive an income as "a value-adding member of the productive class" so that mindset needs to die off sooner rather than later. We're already running into more and more situations where businesses are struggling to find reasons to keep people around when automation and outsourcing is just more efficient.
This trend has no reason to stop, does it?