I would not make it extremely scary. As you said, we know enough causes, consequences and solution to act. It's just interesting to have a picture of what's going on.

The thing is, most of the things you describe, I already do, in France, through taxes for health care, social aid and retirements. Then also insurances (for cars, flat, etc). Doing it myself would mean paying twice.

And since education is free and I don't have a car, I don't have a mortgage.

So my situation is not that bad. It can become bad if:

- the system fails. It will for retirements. It does for some health care / insurance / social aid situation.

- your issue arise outside of what the system takes in consideration.

Knowing that, setting up an automatic emergency saving wire is a good thing to do.

I don't believe saving for my retirement will help in anyway. I'll have to find something better, which I'm working on.

But again, remember than most people don't read HN or anything else than FB streams. They live their life as-is. Like my parents did.

The question is, why could they afford children, pleasures, and saving, while my friend can't. Neither my parents nor my friends are very good planners, but clearly their situation is vastly different.

To address your comment about the situation not being scary... I think it would feel very scary to find yourself in a situation where you don't have an emergency fund. No one ever thinks that they will be hit with an emergency situation but I've found that 8/10 people within a 10 year period will be hit with an unexpected event where they need to use emergency funds (disclaimer: this is based on anecdotal evidence as observed over my life).

If you or your friends couldn't spare 500 € to help a friend out I really wonder what savings you or your friends have.

The most powerful tool anyone has to build wealth (and help others) is:

* The discipline to live below your means (and avoid debt), and

* Your income.

If you are unencumbered with debt, and live as far below your means as you feel comfortable with, you can build a substantial amount of wealth if you have enough time.

As to affording children, and I can only speak from personal experience, but I've found that a dedicated parent will always find a way.

You're right that previous generations had things differently, but only with regards to globalisation... current economic disparity started to occur post 23 December 1913 with the Federal Reserve Act and post 15 August 1971 when Nixon unilaterally terminated the convertibility of the US dollar to gold.

If you really want to know why you will need to learn how money is created and the economic ramifications of a fiat currency (and inflation) combined with a fractional reserve system.

This is a great list, but most will never get through all the way to #7. People have major fixed costs that they simply cannot cut out. Hell, I struggle to get past #4, and I've cut expenses to the bone. Yes, I could drop my mobile phone and Internet. I can move 3 hours away from work (I'm currently 2 hours away) to save on housing costs. I can stop going out with friends once a week and live life as a hermit. I can collect rainwater to drink. Maybe after all that I can get up to #5. But at what point are you sacrificing your certain life today for a possible future life?

Thanks for your great question. I'm not sure how much you'll like my answer though.

I think you can, if you think you can, and can't, if you think you can't.

In other words, it's a matter of belief, action, and continuing motivation.

Of course I don't know your exact circumstances but controlling your expenses is only part of the equation. If you've trimmed your expenses down to the bone it's now time to focus on increasing your income while maintaining low expenditure. Most people don't do this and their spending grows faster than their income does. The mentality you want to avoid is "Get a raise? Buy a bigger/better (x)!"

So until you control your income with the discipline of a general controlling an army during war, the amount of money you make is irrelevant. A great example is sports personalities or entertainers that end up broke.

Assuming you've got that discipline, a sure fire money making scheme is a second job but this is where you can get creative... such as going around your neighbourhood and washing windows/cars/lawn mowing. The internet has flipped this idea on its head so you could freelance late at night after you've tucked the children in bed. Whatever you do make sure it is bringing in cash right now and not some risky or highly speculative idea.

Imho you've got to earn the right to speculate and you can make sound decisions under high levels of risk when you know you got a properly funded emergency fund and pension.

But yeah, there was a reason why I emphasized LIKE YOUR LIFE DEPENDED ON IT. If your life depended on you getting 1000 Euros in one week you would come up with the money. If your life depended on you getting 6 months worth of expenses you would come up with the money. If your life depended on putting 15% of your income each month into your pension you would do it... you get the picture.

The sad thing is peoples' lives do depend on this stuff but they don't act like it does.