"set aside 5% of income every year" At a 1 in 20 rate, if you have a 20 year career like your grandparents (although 20 year careers at the same employer disap

"set aside 5% of income every year" At a 1 in 20 rate, if you have a 20 year career like your grandparents (although 20 year careers at the same employer disappeared generations ago, so you absolutely will not..) and with basically zero to negative investment return after deflation and taxation, one year after downsizing and offshoring you'll be down to the same $0 that the folks who didn't save at 5%, or were unlucky enough to get the economic death penalty a year before you. Meanwhile this happened 0 to 25 years ago and they have maybe 0 to 25 more years to live. Saving would have been a suckers game. You're not going to make it, you'll just be poorer along the way till you reach inevitable utter poverty. Any medical condition affecting you, your spouse, or your child is a financial death penalty. All you need is you, your spouse, and kids, to avoid getting seriously ill or disabled for 40+ years. If anyone gets sick, all saving means in the long run is the hospital execs get your saved money before you go on the charity plan. You're not going to be spending money on around the world cruises or even a quiet middle class life; all that capital will be vacuumed up by the medical, real estate, legal/criminal, or educational sectors. Why should I save today to make some vampire fatter tomorrow? If I scrimp and save for my entire life, some hospital exec can buy a new Ferrari using my savings... whats in it for me? Surely I will not be permitted to actually keep or spend what I save. Another way to put it is everyone in your cohort will get the economic death penalty and get the downward class mobility thing... but at different times. Many are banking on the idea that if they're happy, well fed, possibly educated, and entertained, they'll somehow get the economic death penalty more than a year after someone who has a bad attitude such that they'll run a net lifetime profit by not saving. They're probably correct... the guy who golfs and shares pro sports tickets with his boss is always the last downsized, the person who smiles the most seems the last fired, etc. Saving money does not necessarily correlate with maximized net lifetime income.