I try not to think about whether it's truly justifiable or not. I understand why others do though.
If I didn't have the parents I did, I would have been there myself a few times already. Between health issues and being a spazz I've never exactly been an employers dream.
Most employer's want someone that can do any task, work any shift, and someone that almost never needs to call off sick, if you are anything less sometimes you're fucked. When my dad had to have heart surgery at age 40, and was laid-off as a result because he couldn't work up to the full capacity that he had been, trust me, they never looked once at the 20 some years of time he had in or the fact that he would fight his way 10 miles through an ice storm to get to work when the other employees who lived less than a mile away would call off.
We weren't very far from losing it all. It can happen to anyone at anytime, I don't think anyone is truly immune.
I figure if I give something to someone and it's wasted, it's their karma, not mine. As long as "I" can sleep good at the end of the day, I don't care.