You miss the fact that conservatives, nearly universally, do not accept that any of their situation is their own fault(sounds strange when us on the left will blame capitalism and the elite for most of the problems in the world, but we also come with petabytes of receipts and the right is allergic to facts). Many of them who live deeper in poverty are also living in cheaper areas, too, and have already cognitive-dissonanced themselves out of needing to worry about paying for things like health insurance(especially since many benefit from public healthcare systems, even in the US).

Now, the other important thing to remember is that conservative said those things. That’s crucial because it means that they aren’t talking to their voting base which is cool and tough and good with money, they’re talking to the other guys who need to get their shit together. If their guy does it then there must be a reason and if their enemy does it then there must’ve not been a reason, except they don’t base that on anything real like who’s actually done the research and shown their work.

Conservatives, no matter where you find them, are inherently anti-social power-seekers who refuse to take true responsibility for their actions. Whenever someone I know moves away from conservatism it is around the time they also, for whatever reason, begin to finally understand that the rich don’t actually love them and that maybe they actually do want to have real friends who aren’t also just other hateful goons, afterall.