I am friends with lots of people of all types including doctors, lawyers, construction workers, programmers, day care providers, you name it, and have met many more. All of them that live paycheck to paycheck are like this, just my observations. Anyone not living paycheck to paycheck is usually much more responsible, "boring" and is capable of planning more than a week in advance, but it's not hard at all. Even when trying to educate these people they do not really take it to heart and will go out and waste $200 in a night of drinking after getting their paycheck.
I totally agree that if a doctor, lawyer or programmer lives paycheck to paycheck there is a problem with their financial habits. But there are plenty of other people who are very frugal but never can get ahead because their pay is very low or maybe they have medical problems that eat up their disposable income.
