I used to be quite poor. It sucked, hard. I wrecked a car so I found a bike, I wrecked the bike so I walked. I spent my life looking for the next better paying

I used to be quite poor. It sucked, hard. I wrecked a car so I found a bike, I wrecked the bike so I walked. I spent my life looking for the next better paying job and tried to figure what skills I needed in order to get it. This led me from fast food, to warehouses, to assembly lines, to construction, to a computer repair shop, to tech support, to lab support, to IT helper, to IT admin, to Devops, to cloud support, to leadership. It was a series of tiny steps with a very focused goal. I'm sure that some would say it's because I'm a reasonably intelligent white male but I feel that my path could be taken by just about anyone. I worked with all types at all levels. Even if they stopped at construction they still wouldn't be poor. I think that there are a lot of opportunities out there for people who want things badly enough. The question is, as a society what value do we place in the collective body of people who don't strive to better themselves? Is it something we want to prop up and freeze them in place or do we keep making the better future appealing like a carrot dangling for human growth?