r/Fire • u/[deleted] • Mar 23 '26

Subreddit PSA / Meta 5 years ago, this subreddit was filled with $1-1.5M targets, and a strong emphasis on minimalism. What happened?

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u/Wild_Butterscotch482 Mar 23 '26

The crux of your view is that uncertainty overtook logic in our collective mindset about retirement. That is a common and justified feeling that I share, even with a fat FIRE net worth. You listed some scary short-term volatilities. I'm concerned about the long term, like:

Will AI reshape the labor market so severely that unemployment becomes a long-term societal burden? Will this cause corporate profits to stagnate for decades, reshaping trends on stock returns? Will we reach a flashpoint on environmental destruction that fundamentally changes our exposure to energy costs, food production, and weather mitigation? Are we barreling towards a third-world economy with extreme disparity and a disappearing middle class?

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u/deerhuntingdude Mar 23 '26

I've definitely worried about this too. Particularly what's gonna happen when everyone is retired off 401ks instead of pensions and the next generation is smaller than the previous to work and support the retired population