I'm gonna be real man. The real reason people are poor has everything to do with financial education. It wouldn't matter what political system is in place.
You just said it took you a long time to figure that you didn't need so much. That said you still haven't figured out what real assets are. Assets are anything you put money into that can put money back in your pocket.
Think simple to see what I'm saying. Ask yourself how a chinese restaurant turns a profit and you'll start seeing the answers. Managing money isn't enough! You must realize the power of the dollar in order to become financially free and independent. When you hand money to financial advisors they profit off your dollars and ultimately give you what's left over (miserly returns between 5-20% if you're lucky). My business all generate 50% margins or greater.
I was in your shoes early last year and had a great plan in place to achieve FIRE within about 10 years. The only reason I discovered this side was my efforts to discover REAL side hustles which ultimately led to me discovering business and the true nature of capitalism. It shook me enough to leave my comfort zone and never look back.
Doing quite fine
all this is well and good but it has LITTLE to do with the topic at hand. and as many times you've responded to the threadstarer knowing good and well you responses dont address the original post. makes me think you're just on that nonsense trying to sound smart.
Let me help you along the way. lets say i'm financially literate. But I dont have anything to sell to earn more cash. Lets say my parents never owned a home, I'm the first financially literate rapbeat in the family. Lets say my parents died with no life insurance and didnt leave me a dime. Lets say before i became financially literate i took out a bunch of loans to goto college in hopes at least i will be able to own a home or two or three one day. so now i'm indebt for say 80k. lets say I make$55k per year, lets say i live in L.A. were the rent is high as hell and i can't afford to buy anything worth paying for. so i have to rent. Lets say i have a modest car, but i'm a tall bruh so i couldnt get something super small and super cheap, i need the leg room.
So with all of what you just said above. what the hell is that going to do for me in my virtual situation above?
Sure i can save SOME money, and pay down my debt. But I can't SAVE enough because i dont MAKE enough to have a down payment on a home or any other commercial property where i could flip it or rent it out/lease it out.
I have a 401k. but i dont make a ton of money so i only get a very little bit back in return.
Basically i'm saying this. people do a lot of talking about theory and not reality. The truth that they dont want to tell you is this. in order to do well, 9 times out of 10 you will need startup cash to invest in yourself, in your business, in your real estate venture(s), in your stocks. and you need enough of it to make a dent so you can flip it again a few times and now you move up the ladder financially speaking.
Lets say you played the gambling stocks game. lets say you found a nice stock that started out at 30bucks. and you jumped on at the start and knew more about the company than most. lets say you have the scenario above with a couple of kids. you and the baby mama aint together so there is no 2 parent household income thing happening. So now you have less $ to spare. so lets say you buy 100 shares. that will cost you $3,000k. You dont have that money to burn like that. but lets just say you had it and pray nothing bad happens anytime soon and you need another 3k to help. lets say you can afford to leave those shares alone for 5 years. lets say in the 5th year that stock is now $300.00. now you just made 30k. now you can have a little down payment money on something really small not in los angeles unless its a super fixer upper in the deep deep hood where ish happens on the daily. You could perhaps flip that 30k and make it work. but if for whatever reason you slip and make the wrong choice of real estate or investments with your first big money move. you will lose it all. and you will be back to square one again. you may not know of any other companies where you know them so well and know they will do that well again. and even that was a fluke.
but odds are you make 32k, and you dont have any real money saved more than 3k for emergencies only and you're already barely making rent. so you cant ever invest in anything that you can make real money on, which leaves you in this bad loop. barely have enough to rent and go to work to pay rent to go to work.......
This is what happens when the new society you live in was changed to favor the ultra rich. you are now destined to be poor forever. and they have laws on the books, to make sure that is the case and make sure you stay that way.
There's another reason why this big companies making all this money need to pay much more in taxes. or at least needs to be scared into it. the reason is that they still wont want to pay uncle same that money or not all of it. so they will have to put it some where so it can't be taxed. well that some where USE to be in the employees pockets as raises/bonuses.
if you have a choice as a billion dollar company to pay 500 mil in taxes or 500 mil in raisers and bonuses. you will most likely choose the later. this will give more spending power to your employees. which will make them happy. happy workers, produce a lot more than unhappy/depressed workers. so you the employer get a nice bump in production. in addition, these same employees give you great reviews online and offline telling the world how well you treat them. this then means other employees that need work are looking to join your great company. this is how you attract and retain great talent. another bump for you the big business owner.
This is also a country wide economic boost since people now have money to spend on things without wondering if they could make rent.