The life of everyone in nearly every first world country is based on their freedom and education. This is not something unique to the United States.
Hell, we're regressing on both fronts. Trump's slogan may be "make America great again", but that's not going to happen until we accept that the "lazy" can still contribute more with cheap/free higher education.
In fact, the fundamental concept behind such arguments is one of the primary benefits we gained from moving away from a hunter/gatherer and subsistence farming society and started forming cities.
Many individuals could produce a sufficient surplus, such that not everyone had to work purely for the existence of the group, and rather could devote their efforts to philosophical, technological, and scientific pursuits, from which humanity derived greater benefit.
This then led to the barter tit for tat system, which itself led to capitalism. Ironic that capitalism grew from socialist societies. But I digress.
Your basic assumption that everyone needs to work hard, and pull their own weight, and make their own way in the world is fundamentally wrong. Such doctrine in fact pisses away what is arguably the greatest benefit of collective human society.