Why are so many people martyrs and do they make it bad for the rest of us in a society with limited safety net?

The safety net in this country is very limited because of a serious overpopulation of 308,000,000, not including the 20-30 million illegal aliens. On top of that we have so many troglodyte Republicans who would eliminate all entitlement programs completely if they had their way and let everyone starve who can't pull themselves by their bootstraps, the horrible expression used as a euphemism for the law of the jungle. In fact the Republicans gave the social safety net the misnomer entitlement programs, as if mere survival is not something we're entitled to. Do martyrs ruin it for everyone else who works hard but isn't a masochist with no fear of death? Martyrs are insane unless they're saving a nation like Gandhi or Mandela. And martyrdom is not just a byproduct of overwhelming work overload. It goes to the next level where people think that death is an escape and not an agonizingly painful extinction. Thoughts on this irrational country which simply will not define itself and still officially operates under the reckless disregard of a nonsystem of unbridled capitalism.