There are many reasons why people in the 50's and upward do not have enough money to buy a  house or a condo, or to pay market rents. Loss of a life partner to a costly illness, a crippling disease, just plain bad luck in life, and not everybody survives the weeding out process that high schools and colleges perform to separate those who might gain degrees and better jobs from those who do not do so well in school. What would you have done with those who have fallen by the wayside? Throw them in the ocean to sink or swim? Maybe these folks have a craft....perhaps they know how to run a sugar mill or irrigate cane fields. Some trades and skills pay next to nothing. I think what you are really saying is, "I made it, why cannot they do the same?" I hear this a lot from people who have more than enough.