Do you think it's essential to keep a solid buffer between you and disaster or did you sacrifice that to the gods of "living life to the fullest right here and now"? Or mayhaps you're struggling to keep a boat afloat as it is and going cheaper isn't really an option for you as you are already at the timit of cheapness for your specific situation and saving seems like an unachievable goal, becauase everything goes to surviving?
Basically, if you presume freedom of will and peraonal responsibility are a thing then it is significantly more likely that there is a possibility for a person to lift themselves out of poverty one way or another and they choose not to act upon it (rather than strictly corcumstances that make it impossible to do so).
That doesn't follow. You can have lots of bad options and the freedom to choose between them.
That is not to mention that the wast majority of the people are simply bad with money. Like they would take out a loan on a new iphone when they can eaaily get a cheap paidoff android/a used iphone or they would buy a car that is way above whet they can comfortably afford
Do you have any data that suggests that this is in fact the vast majority of people? There are certainly people who do this, but there are also people who choose a newer car because they can't afford the uncertainty of potential maintenance problems with an old one, for example. The newer car costs more on average, but it's more consistent. When you don't have savings to smooth out the bumps, you could lose a lot if a problem happens at a particularly inconvenient time.
A phone is such a negligible expense compared to a car that I don't think it really needs addressing. Even a maxed-oit iPhone Duo is $100/month or so. That's less than most people spend on gas alone.
And that's ignoring people who get locked into payments on things that they could afford when they bought them, but no longer can. Job loss or medical expenses can wipe out your savings in a hurry.