Perhaps proper education and examples of personal finance and budgeting, even in the face of celebrity promos and sales sales sales, could prevent some of the next generation from doing the same. I'd argue that you're oversimplifying those that got themselves stuck. They possibly lacked caring or supportive parents, stable childhood, stable role models that aren't rich, quality education on issues like personal finance, etc.
When things are simplified it's often easier to draw conclusions, but the method of simplification and how far you go will induce bias. Maybe someone's car was hit and totalled. They couldn't afford to insure it while working 2 jobs with no healthcare/benefits and trying to support a kid they can't afford (or legally abort). They now have a medical bill for $2000 due to injuries sustained, no car to commute to work, no job if they can't commute, and no way to afford an incoming baby regardless. They jump to a dealership the next morning and have a car loan signed by 10am, then back to work having missed hours (that they won't get paid for). Then they had to decide between food and the car loan before even considering the medical debt. Maybe they had medical debt from a prior issue that tanked their credit score and left them with a 20%+ loan they just signed. Maybe they have a concussion or the pregnant woman needs time off work to heal (Paid? Unpaid? will there be a job to return to?) Regardless, they didn't have the resources, time, money or energy to respond to the crash and it sunk them into thousands of debt before they got their test results back from the medical appointment.
Sucks, but is a very real issue for many Americans. With proper regulations (with teeth) for:
benefits/sick leave or PTO/wiggle room to deal with emergencies outside of work,
laws to cut down interest rates or free people from bad/old debt that has them spiralling including higher education or Community College coursework in personal finance or budgeting (and better career/job prospects),
proper funding for universal healthcare to stop medical debts and increase use of basci services to prevent major cases and long term costly health issues,
support for families (including family planning) and greater access to (and no loss of pride from using) SNAP/food stamps,
a plan for childcare
education from a young age on personal finance and other useful practices
We could see improvements in many Americans daily lives. Often, edge case or minority groups feel the system has left them behind, forgotten them, or even betrayed them. In America, that's true. The system will help those who help themselves but life does not discriminate when dealing out misfortunes and it can be very expensive to be poor for reasons mentioned in other comments like the boots story. Citizens will continue fighting even if they are fighting for the right to die from lack of support, can't reason with it.