I'll give credit where credit is due, that's not a bad number of investing on your part and I can appreciate that you walk the walk, not just talk the talk on this topic. It's not a great number if that's literally all you have (like if you have no 401K or property) but it's something.
That doesn't change a thing about what I say though when it comes to actually investing. People don't have the money to do these investments. Even your amount invested, that's not going to become real actionable money to do something with for decades. It's a great start but most people do not have the funds to do it. Hell, per stats, approx 40-60% of people who are homeless are employed. I'm not sure how much more you're going to be able to sacrifice when you literally have no roof over your head. People with families are not going to hold out on their kids so that one day in 30 years, they'll have a bit of cash that could get wiped away real easy by the next accident or illness or bad luck event. It's way easier to make yourself live a Minimalist Lifestyle of sacrificing anything fun when it's just you that you have to worry about.
You keep trying to convince me that people should be investing and I agree, people should be investing (I've got my 401K as well as savings and my house). But many (I'd even dare say the majority) of Americans CAN'T and no amount of you anecdotally living a Spartan Lifestyle is going to change my thinking that Capitalism isn't a virus in this country that needs some major curing.
Funny you say that, compared to my Asian friends, I spend like a drunk sailor. I turn on the A/C allot more than I should, they don't even when it's 92 degrees outside. I buy stuff at Costco, and they do too but less. I buy snacks like dried mangos, they would rather just buy only fruits, and vegetables. I buy more expensive cooking ingredients, they don't. I rarely but do buy updates to technology that I have, like a computer replacement every 10 years, NVME SSDs, they don't.
But they did study more than me, so they test better than I do and get into better majors and colleges like Stanford, Penn State, and Columbia with BS degrees in computer science, engineering, and biomedical engineering. Their parents also have businesses, mine don't because their parents worked harder than mine. Heating since more people die from cold deaths vs deaths by heat.
But some things we both spend lavishly on (not luxury, just new). Cars so we don't die in an accident, and wait on mechanics. A house, so we have a place to live, and on their part, because those are appreciating in value.
I have had to go into the ER too (medical debt), and I don't have a good insurance plan, I am still paying off my attempted masters, and second bachelor's degree (around 21K due to OSU being an in-state college).
But no one is coming to save me, not socialists from or studying in New York City, Chicago, and Seattle who just want to tax people richer than them. Not the Congress, which hasn't implemented a more cost effective medical system. Not aliens from outer space who, at best, don't exist yet due to Earth being the first planet with advanced intelligence, or worse, the dark forest theory. Not my city government, which keeps giving money to massive data warehouses that hire like 10 people or actual warehouses that only have low wage work. I have only myself and my immediate family to rely on. Destroying capitalism could take decades, and by then i will be dead, and personally, if destroying capitalism means less economic growth and innovation, less LLMs, innovation in space, solar panel companies like Solar City ,and or the US as the sole superpower, I will fight tooth, and nail to stop including voting for a moderate Republican, not that my vote matters I am only one person. In fact, the highest impact i could make right now is voting for or against Senator Sherrod Brown, and for Harris to help deny or allow Harris a Senate proof majority, which I could do if it matters.
