I suppose part of the trick is to realize you're living less than a zero sum life, and then grinding even worse off for a long while to save enough up for a pair of boots that will then save you enough to lift your life up by the bootstraps.
Take on debt to amortize against future positive sums.
End yourself.
Change the weights in your utility formula.
It's a question of cash flow.
It's a vicious cycle, too; the lower your cash flow is, the less you can exploit economies of scale, and the less you can save, keeping your cash flow limited. Catastrophic events (such as an unexpected illness) are more likely to create debt, and debt service (interest and repayment of principal) reduces your cash flow further.
While wealth, at some point, becomes self-sustaining.
This is by no means a value judgement -- been there, done that -- and more just a reality of the situation.