My parents retired when each reached 52. They are 88 and 77 now. They never owned a business nor made huge salaries. They spent less than they made and invested the rest. From investments and retirement, they make WAY more annually now than they ever did while working.
When they built their house, it was paid for the day we moved in. I was 11 at the time, am now 54. Always pay cash for cars and has never been in debt for anything.
They aren’t sweating this and didn’t sweat it back in 2008. If ppl are sweating it, they either aren’t looking long-term or they started late and trying to play catch up or simply haven’t invested wisely.
I have empathy for ppl but I also understand that many, many ppl personally make piss poor decisions and then blame everyone else for their failures.