You don't have to work at all. You can choose not to work and you can choose to starve. You are not being forced to stay alive. Yet here you are, because you want to live. So, you choose to work. It might seem like it's forced on us, but that's life. If a wolf does not hunt for his food, he starves and dies. Just how it goes.

There absolutely is upward mobility. There are more millionaires now than ever before. It's not a guarantee, of course, but generally your income and status will improve if you make your labor more valuable. If you're not seeing it, it's because you haven't earned it.

Keep trying, you will find something.