There are those of us who view empathy and more importantly sympathy as a vice...not a virtue.
from http://patriotaction.net/profiles/blogs/the-indolent-class-a
The Indolent class relies upon assistance from many sources for all their needs. Government, private sector, friends, and relatives may all contribute. The Indolent conducts their life with assistance from others factored in to all they do.
The Indolent is additionally freed from the outcomes of their choices and behaviors. Somebody else will fix what they break. Somebody else will feed the mouths they create.
Indolents are never to blame for creating their misfortunes.
Indolents are freed from the Cause and Effect relationships of life.
The question becomes - How can anyone learn from experience when they are purposely excluded from responsibility? What motivation will curb their appetites when nothing stands to impede their appetites?
This is why most Indolents remain on public assistance from others all their lives. They learn from birth that others will care for them. Laws require the government intervene. Citizens and non-citizens who refuse to care for themselves, or are unable to negotiate life, receive subsidy. For some Indolents, the welfare level of income, a level classified by government as poverty, is sufficient and preferred to working. The Indolent prefers free time to do what they wish, over finding gainful employment that requires their time. Many adopt crime as a means of supplementing their incomes.
At some point the empathy/sympathy must be turned form virtue into vice. The lives of the poor are not sufficiently miserable. The poor in the USA live better than 90% of the rest of the world and yet they are somehow being oppressed by those who live middle income or wealthy lives.
How many of us learned years later that it was the teacher who gave hard tests, it was the Mom and Dad that said no, it was the coach that pushed you to the max, it was the boss who screamed, “Get it done no matter what.” that was the one who actually cared for you.
I believe it all comes down to personal responsibility. It seems to have disappeared from our society, maybe starting with having sex with whomever and "taking care" of the problem as a result of your actions. I tell anyone who will listen, choice is before you have sex, then you man up and accept the consequences of your actions. But no one seems to want to do that anymore. Nothing is their fault no matter what their actions result in, it is someone else's fault, they have a perfect example right in front of their faces everyday to learn from, the POTUS.