Quote from: alastantiger on August 02, 2023, 09:23:28 AM

Secondly every country in the world has some version of their American dream, if your country does, what is its version of the American dream and does it still exist? Is it still achieveable or attainable?

I always found the American dream a nice motivation for people to try and be successful. Working yourself up from a dish washer or the mail room to become a millionaire is one of the greatest success stories that shows everybody can make it. Unfortunately in my country we don't really have the goal of becoming rich, over here it's more about living a good and happy life. In my country there are two mottos that my parents and grandparents lived by. The first one is to save as much money as possible so you have a good life during retirement. Instead of treating yourself today and enjoying life, it's all about working hard and for planning down the road 30 years from now. The other saying is that there is an insurance for every risk. People are very risk averse and love to take out insurance for any possible situation. This again prevents you from enjoying life today, because you have to pay all the insurances. You can spend all your life paying premiums for worse case scenarios that never happen, just so that you sleep better. The big problem for me is that being afraid of risk also means that you won't invest your money and rather leave it at the bank in a savings account. That's why the goal of becoming a millionaire is not really an option.