There's that 4-letter word, FAIR. It is drilled into our children at an early age and people seem to think the purpose of Government is to provide "fairness".
You wrote: "people seem to think the purpose of Government is to provide 'fairness'".
And "people" are right too, particularly when it comes to policies that are under the control of government itself. The government has a duty to be fair.
But that's abstract.
In a democracy, the government will be fair to the groups constituting the largest number of voters, or it will be rather soon replaced by one that will be.