I think you might have to be privileged to never work full time, but I know plenty of people of different backgrounds in Europe who in their late 20s early 30s

I think you might have to be privileged to never work full time, but I know plenty of people of different backgrounds in Europe who in their late 20s early 30s started reducing how much they work for one reason or another and were able to do so. On the other hand, I know very few in my age group (mid 30s) that live in a hand-me-down property. If there is such a property in the family it is usually where the parents live. Of course reducing work, comes with compromises what you can afford and is not feasible for a lot of jobs. And yes, for certain goals/timeframes there is no choice but to jump in the meat grinder, at least for a while. But there often are alternatives to stay out of it and live a comfortable live. Also if you move to a country from abroad it will take you a while to live there efficiently. E.g. many of the expats I met in Switzerland complain about how much of their salary they spend on restaurants, services, etc. Sure it's very expensive, but they also use them like ten times more often than a Swiss would. Same for me as a Swiss living in Colombia. I regularly overspend just by being used to do things a certain way and being ignorant of the tweaks.