What can I do for vital sustenance if I was born without talent, looks, or charm, and euthanasia is illegal?

It depends on whose society you are talking about. If you are talking about American society, then I cannot comment. I know very little about American society, even though I spend significant amounts of time there (it's not for the want of trying to understand American society, I just cannot understand how poor people put up with such a brutal toss of the coin and then say and DO nothing). Here in Europe, we'd have had the previous President's head on a stick! We expect our govenments to take care of the poor and needy and we get rid of that government if they don't. "Merit" doesn't come into it. If someone is alive and helpless (with or without merit) we expect the government to help them. That's the European way.