That's typical poor-person mentality. Every last penny is spent on "surviving".
Needless to say, if they didn't have that last penny, they'd still manage to survive, and with an enviable standard of living compared to hundreds of millions of people who actually struggle to survive - people who subsist on staples such as beans, rice, potatoes, cabbage, and who use meat as a garnish rather than the main course.
Exhibit A: income taxes are withheld. And people survive. They didn't really need that money for survival. It follows that your statement is false: they didn't need the money to survive, so if they blow it, it's not on "surviving".
It's on "poor planning", "poor decision making", and/or "keeping up with the Joneses"... but Jones makes $120,000/year and you make $12,000, and you think you need a $90/mo. cell phone plan, and as soon as you have enough for the down payment you get that big-screen plasma TV that you've been wanting from the pawn shop or Aarons' where you end up paying above its real worth. Etc.