The people on ER.org often have pensions, good pay, megacorp or Govt/military benefits and have also probably been prudent with their money. They are out of the ordinary and most people cannot hope to save the sorts of figures many of us have here. The comments often show a lack of knowledge or envy, but it's a good reminder that this forum is the 1% and most people have a far harder time financially......and usually not because of stupidity.
I completely agree that this board skews to the well off. As I've acknowledged before, it's been years since I made a hard personal financial decision. I've made important ones and planned a lot, but I haven't made a hard trade-off in quite some time.
To your point, most people who fail to build wealth aren't stupid. Some are brutally unlucky at birth or in life (illness) while others are born on 3rd base and think they hit a grand slam. On a global basis, virtually anyone born into western society qualifies as having been born at least on 2nd base.
That said, we will always return to the chicken and the egg problem on this stuff terms of people who do build wealth and the ability of the average joe to build wealth if s/he simply makes decent decisions over the long haul.
Part of the reason I haven't made hard decisions lately is because I made many of them before. Whether big (major career risks), small (forgoing vacations to use same money to visit family) or daily (working past midnight for over a year to start a new business unit while I fixed up my own house to avoid debt). I apologize for none of it and have little patience for the many, many people I've worked with over the years who had a better launch trajectory and simply consumed themselves into a life of servitude or "cruised" at work and now wonder why they don't have money and some freedom.
I still remember quite vividly two lessons/decisions that have shaped my life:
At 14, I was caddying alongside another teen. As we marched thru some trees up a hill on a steamy summer day, he complained every step of the way. I recall thinking that life involved work and there were two ways to do it: grudgingly or with a smile on one's face. Though I've failed at times, I've always tried to do the latter.
At 24, my wife and I were buried under a mountain of student debt (at 8-10% rates) and I received my first pay raise. We sat at our crappy kitchen table in our tiny apartment and decided to break the raise into thirds: 1/3 to create some cash reserves, 1/3 to pay down debt and 1/3 to have a little spending money.
I would argue that these two decisions -- plus a willingness to take risks -- shaped the arc of our financial lives. Those decisions were made possible by good health and a safe starting point in life but they were decisions most people get to make at some point.
It's the interplay between circumstances and decisions that our society can't quite find a way to talk about responsibly.
(On re-reading this, it's a bit long...I wasn't trying to tee off on your post, which as noted I agreed with...just sharing some thoughts.)
Happy New Year!