That is not always true in my experience. Several generations on my and my wife's families put up with backbreaking hard work and privations in order to build a better future for later generations. Simultaneously other branches of our families spent what they had and enjoyed better lives at the time instead. It was a huge investment that really paid off in my generation, my family's debt to them is incalculable and largely unpayable.
True. But most try to make sure that they have just a little bit more than anybody else around them.