[achillesheels]

The fact that they are indeed for the risk averse is why I found it quaint Bogle’s Funds have been called “Marxist” according to a quote from Barron’s last year. People would choose to suffer collecting paychecks and squirreling away their money instead of using their collected six figures in savings and taking a chance at starting a business, creating necessarily healthy market forces which leads to new demand in labor and services.

This is how capitalism is supposed to work from the ground floor. Toiling away 25 years in a cubicle eschewing social responsibilities like the FIRE subreddit ought to be morally reprehensible - that’s how strongly I feel about it (I’m active in two businesses I’ve co-founded and have enjoyed seeing economic theory from the ground up).

[exolymph]

Not everyone is equipped to start and run a company. It's not a universal skill or anywhere near it. If more people invested their retirement savings in businesses, you'd mainly have more ill-conceived restaurants and T-shirt companies going bust.

[achillesheels]

I agree, but certainly those who are banking 30%+ of their gross six figure income have, in general, both the luxury to pick a market and the temperance to stick it out for several years before their momentum breeds its own growth and a long-tail retirement plan in itself. It’s only easier said than done by those who have never made the commitment to suffer to try.