It sounds like you think that, absent government intervention, after receiving a $50K salary for 30 years, it is an inevitable outcome that a Berkeley resident working as a tool lender will live the rest of his non-working life in poverty.

You are right that some people will choose to live as grasshoppers and not ants. But it hardly seems reasonable that society's empathy for their lack of planning should extend to assuring them the retirement of their dreams rather than a minimal one.