all of this is apparently unknown to most.
It is amazing, isn't it? I know at times I am far worse with money than I should be, but at other times I am far better with it than most, which saves me. I also tend to work my ass off at what I do, which brings some benefits.
I don't think many Gen X, Millennials, or Zoomers have had that kind of experience.
I don't think so. Though, I am Gen-X and most of my friends were working from around 16 years of age on. For me, I was working from 12 with cash in hand jobs, as it was the only way I could get money for anything I wanted. It taught me independence, but not sure if for better or worse yet.
A friend of mine (from the US) brought up how many people are living one paycheck away from nothing. It is incredible that society functions at all there - but then, that is what the gaps are there for - so that the affluent part, don't see much of the financially effluent part.
A lot of the wealth of the "1%" is in fact highly leveraged debt, or shares in highly leveraged corporations. It's a house of cards waiting for the inevitable economic reality behind the facade of prosperity to be revealed. We'll see what stands after. But of course the US government will plunder the productive economy to prop up their cronies when they get caught with their pants down. That's the reality behind the rhetoric of our "free-market capitalism."