The wealthy are only wealthy in comparison to everyone else. So if everyone else gets less poor say from free school lunches or free college, then it makes the

The wealthy are only wealthy in comparison to everyone else. So if everyone else gets less poor say from free school lunches or free college, then it makes the wealthy relatively less rich even if their bank balance remains the same number. It also means that the general population is harder to exploit. So there are multiple motivations why some would like to perpetuate this myth and not fund social programs.