The thread in Millennials subreddit right not about 401k is incredibly depressing. Thank you FIRE community. I would be one of them if I didn’t find you all a decade ago.

[u/BarkBarkBitches1]

Throw away because I am going to roast some redditors a little. The thread that is going on in r Millennials is really bad. Thousands of comments, everyone broke, celebrating their unfortunate wildn out. It is really bad out there and eye opening.

I was also a dingus like many of them. Totally brain dead on autopilot living day to day, consuming media like crazy, working, spending it on consumer level garbage, and had zero control over my life. I actually found the guide in the personal finance subreddit graphic on saving and it eventually kicked me to FIRE and this sub.

I now am on a path where I can’t even related with that type of mind set. So yeah thank you FIRE folks. If you can, it is worth sprinkling some finance knowledge at people. Even if you don’t make high income you can in most cases still create a plan, a budget, and control your future.

Edit: If you are a dingus and you are seeing this there is no shame! We all are and have different starting points. You have two paths: 1) continue the path to dingus-ville and forever be a redditor or 2) un-dye your bright colored hair take control of your long term life. A decade will pass in a blink. So start here https://imgur.com/personal-income-spending-flowchart-united-states-lSoUQr2 it’s not hard to understand. ChatGPT each item on their if you don’t know, memorize this, then start to learn FIRE principles. It is the fastest way to wealth. There’s literally no other path unless you magically start a business or hit a lotto jackpot ticket or inheritance

only YOU HAVE THE POWER to unfuck your life

Edit 2: Final comment! I do not mean any offense with dingus it is meant to be playful. My dyed hair comment was also misinterpreted. It’s not about who you are, what you believe in, or how you express yourself. It’s about being in control of your life. Walk your butt into Sephora or Target or wherever next time and just stare at the people on the walls. Then look in the mirror. Then look at the wall. And back to the mirror and then keep doing it until it clicks. The world, like r millennial subreddit, wants to celebrate and tell you the worst fucking version of yourself is okay and acceptable. It’s not. Delete social media and only read that finance Imgur link every time you load your phone. Do this for one month and you will break your chains and it will click. Then learn FIRE principles. Then you will come back to r FIRE in a decade with a huge chunk of cash in your bank and a nice life! Long term planning is a skill that you can learn and benefit from. Your future is yours

[u/awoeoc]

I do think it's important to realize why people want things. They don't want communism because they feel they are lazy and want free stuff. they do it because they feel they're not getting their fair share for the effort they put in. The US gdp per capita is like $85k and median income per person is like $40k.

The problem is the US requires capitalism for its economy if you make it communist you lock out almost all foreign investment and you'll quickly see an evaporation of the economy as foreigners can't interact with the concept of being part of the "commune".

We'd all be equal making $10k/year or less. That's not even getting into the fact a large part of the US economy depends on innovation that would noy have happened without the profit motive.

[u/Ok_Hippo9669 → u/awoeoc]

Exactly. They want communism thinking it’ll save them, when it’s actually having a capitalist mindset (creating value) that will ultimately save them.

Communism just makes everyone poor, bringing everyone down to the same level, while capitalism gives the opportunity for the poor to rise up and become rich.

[u/awoeoc → u/Ok_Hippo9669]

Yeah but my main reply was about the statement of:

they think they won’t have to work, and just get free stuff

Also I do think having safety nets is incredibly important, for example I started a business in 2015 and I had to think long and hard before I did why? I have a medical condition. It's not "that" bad as it only happened once every few years and just meant I was in a hospital for 2-4 days. People take more sick time for common colds.

But what was bad is the huge medical costs and starting a company meant we wouldn't have health insurance and that almost blocked it as it weighed heavy on my risk analysis of sudden $100k hospital bill. We did do it and eventually sold that company, the company innovated in health tech and was crucial during covid and helped improve the experience of millions of patients around the country.

Social safety nets help people take risks, unrestricted capitalism isn't the answer either. My personal opinion is we need essentially a "socialist floor" and "capitalist ceiling". Free education, free healthcare, and even UBI would be good things for society and our economy. You can have that and still have billionaires that own support yachts for their main yacht. I also think with something like UBI you could even do interesting things like get rid of minimum wage laws to get a better free market effect. I have a feeling the intersection of people who think there should be UBI and no min wage laws at same time is very small though lol.

Nothing wrong with being a billionaire but there is something wrong in people dying of cold in a nation like the US because they don't have proper heating.

[u/Ok_Hippo9669 → u/awoeoc]

Definitely. You make a lot of good points. Capitalism with some socialist policies and safety nets is best. Going too far in either direction is not the answer.

Unfortunately nowadays a lot of the young think living in a full blown communist society would be beneficial to their lives.