Almost without exception, anyone currently active in motorsport at pretty much any level is paying for it out of their own pocket, their own/family business pocket, or a very close relative/friend/business associates pocket. There are astonishingly few paid/salaried drives in motorsport.
Put simply, unless you are extremely fortunate, you'll be paying for your racing yourself to the point of making yourself a candidate for a paid drive. For F1, this pretty much means paying up to and including GP2. For BTCC a handful of seats are paid, for WTCC six to ten seats are paid, etc, etc. Some drivers are lucky enough to get free drives; especially common in endurance racing.
With regards to the benefit of money in karting, you're generally not paying for a "special" bit of kit if/when running with a team. The good teams (not the ragtag gang of dads) are up the front because they have a body of accumulated knowledge that allows them to make the right setup decisions almost every time and their kit is very well prepared. With more effort but less money you can accumulate the same knowledge and compete with them and beat them.
Having said that, you have to accept that money will always buy an advantage, be it in new tyres, fresh engines, seat time or buying in experience. You have to concentrate on improving your own performance and worry less about what your competitors are doing/spending. Just ask yourself if you are as well prepared as you can be for the budget you have available. If you can honestly answer yes to that question then what else can you do?
Finally, Cadet and Junior Dads are a breed apart. The best know what their contribution is, put the right amount of money on the table and step back when they have to, most stay too actively involved and over-compensate for their lack of knowledge/ability with money when available or rhetoric and conjecture when not, and it goes without saying what the worst are like. You then have the rare breed of Dad who is happy with clubby karting spending as much or as little as they like.
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