And I think the somewhat scary thing is that we've become a "bailout nation" at so many levels (both at the high end, e.g. "wall street bailouts", and at the low end, e.g. extremely generous covid unemployment benefits), that a lot of these folks will be bailed out for their poor choices down the road by the rest of us.
So it can make someone who is naturally cautious and prudent feel like a sucker when the shit hits the fan, because while they were delaying gratification and risk taking, the people who did "live for today" then get to cry poverty and get bailed out.
Worse, if you are prudent and save, you can end up being demonized as a "hoarder" when the tide goes out by those who weren't wearing swim trunks. This happened to my family during Covid. I have a family member in the medical field, who has always kept a decent-sized stock of surgical masks and other medical gear around, and was pretty prescient in early 2020 when the news first started coming out of China, stating "people don't realize how bad it's going to get." When Covid first hit, when medical authorities were still claiming "masks don't work for the general population", he always wore a mask in public, and in one case was derided for "stealing" masks from those who need it (FWIW he works in a hospital).
Savers constantly get bailed out by the artificial 0% lower bound which is obviously unsustainable. It means things like temporary economic downturns aren't allowed as otherwise people flood out of their risky investments, fire people and hold cash to avoid losses that are artificially declared nonexistent on cash. Someone has to pay for those losses, either people become unemployed and subsidize the savers by living a life in misery or the saver pays for the damage he caused which obviously can only happen after the fact through inflation.
Because the economy isn't allowed to decline for even a single day, the government must ensure that it keeps growing by any means possible no matter how stupid.
I bought ffp3 masks on 20th Feb 2020 since I could see what was unfolding. A month later my coworker accused me of panic buying. That was just forward planning? At no point was I panicked when I clicked the buy button in the freely available mask products.
So it can make someone who is naturally cautious and prudent feel like a sucker when the shit hits the fan, because while they were delaying gratification and risk taking, the people who did "live for today" then get to cry poverty and get bailed out.
Worse, if you are prudent and save, you can end up being demonized as a "hoarder" when the tide goes out by those who weren't wearing swim trunks. This happened to my family during Covid. I have a family member in the medical field, who has always kept a decent-sized stock of surgical masks and other medical gear around, and was pretty prescient in early 2020 when the news first started coming out of China, stating "people don't realize how bad it's going to get." When Covid first hit, when medical authorities were still claiming "masks don't work for the general population", he always wore a mask in public, and in one case was derided for "stealing" masks from those who need it (FWIW he works in a hospital).