Conservatives and poverty

It seems to me that almost all conservatives, excepting those who truly (and insanely) believe faith-based organizations can take over all the functions of the welfare state, must have a really twisted concept of pain. Probably in most cases not as twisted as that of Ayn Rand, whose main character in The Fountainhead claims that "there's more suffering in [an artist] when he can't do the work he wants to, than in a whole field of victims run over by a tank," but twisted nevertheless.

In my opinion, strongly advocating unbridled economic competition, which produces millions of losers for every big winner, and then condemning those losers to a life of misery just because they're all "lazy," is completely heartless and requires that the conservative convince him/herself, at some level, that the poor's pain doesn't matter. Now, I don't deny that rich people have problems in their lives, but they're never forced to go without food and shelter for any length of time.