Laurence:
I sometimes have the same thought -- what, if after years of LBYM, saving and investing diligently, I just up and die? My neighbors, who rarely pass up the chance to buy a new, expensive toy, may in fact turn out to have been smarter than me. They appear to enjoy life in the here and now.
On your other point, I do have sympathy for the average Joe. There was a book recently called "Nickeled and Dimed" about people who have poor educations, come from dysfunctional families, work at minimum wage jobs and are just falling further and further behind. All those, me included, who congratulate ouselves on the financial acumen, self control, etc leading to our ability to FIRE should read it and thank our lucky stars
The point of the book, and something I have observed in my own family, is that once you get behind the eight ball in this country, it is hard to recover. It is easy enough to say that they should have known better, behaved better, etc. But how many hormone addled 16 year olds can see beyond next week, especially when rasied by parents with no parenting skills. They don't finish school, get pregnant as teenagers and end up in dead end jobs. Asking them to recover from that is like asking me to fly to the moon -- it won't happen.
In sum, while I am happy/proud to be in my current position, I never forget how close run a thing it was, and I am extremely grateful.
