It's also a trap that saps the will to be independent. Once you start tapping into govt aid it gets easier and easier and the desire to take a risk gets less and less.
Government also encourages dependence and punishes ambition. I found that out personally when I got laid off from my job. First they told me I was ineligible for unemployment for 2 weeks because I had received severance pay, so I took a 2 week temporary job which messed things up so badly I didn't get a check for months. Then I took a minimum wage job, part time with no benefits in the hope that I could convince them I was worth taking on full time. When it became obvious I was wasting my time I quit to look for full time work. The state then cut me off completely because I quit rather than being laid off. If I had just sat at home on my butt eating bonbons and watching tv I would have received $330 per week with no problems. Instead I tried to work so between July 2013 and November 2013 I received 3 checks, one of which they demanded I pay back to them. I finally found full time work but I appealed the cutoff of benefits just so I could tell the hearing officers that they were a bunch of worthless bureaucrats who lived off the misery of others and had no incentive to actually get people working again. I don't expect my appeal to be approved.
I was lucky enough to have no bills other than small utility bills, plenty of food stored on hand and a rainy day fund to tide us over. If you aren't in that situation and have to collect unemployment I would have to advise you to sit at home, collect your check and keep on applying until you find a full time replacement for the full time job you lost or else the state will punish you.