People who save nothing until 30 likely have poor money management habits, and are in for a rough ride no matter what the expected return of the stock market is.
Saving early is more important than saving a lot. That's the magic of compound interest.
Even during the recent recession, inflation has been very much under control. So I'm not sure what "stagnant wages" have to do with anything.
The people who got those ridiculous mortgages were snookered in a shell game. If a person can't trust his mortgage broker, who can he trust?
But, all that good financial education they got in school should have prepared them for that.
Wait, it didn't? NO WAY!
As for mortgages, what's the saying? You can't con an honest man?
People pay more money for take-out coffee than it costs to make a decent and nutritious meal, and this is considered perfectly normal. It's not impossible to be fiscally responsible, just unfashionable.
This was for a one time surgical operation. Long term ongoing care, as you've noticed, is gonna be a lot worse. That's what insurance is supposed to be for, not small shit like doctor's appointments, or manageable shit like surgeries. (Assuming you aren't covered by your employer or the government.)
The down payments, all told, were somewhat over $1000, $1200 or $1300 as I recall, and that's for anesthesiologist + surgeon after some amount of negotiation. The hospital had an assistance program that covered their end of the costs, which would have easily matched or exceeded the surgeon's bill otherwise.
The price for my sinus surgery was $40k.
Hell, when I went to the ER because I had pneumonia, and no insurance, I paid $700.
Where are you finding these prices for surgery - Tijuana?
But I think you are giving the consumer way too much of a free pass for their own misbehavior. I'm not completely without sympathy for people who are honestly having a hard time paying for the essentials of life. But what about the people who finance a new car because a 10 year old used econo-box would be beneath them? The people who buy expensive packaged foods instead of cooking from cheaper raw ingredients? People who have a satellite dish on their doublewide? As evidenced by the recent increase in savings rates, US consumers have the ability to cut back when they need to.
As for getting "snookered" into mortgages, who the hell makes the biggest purchase of their lives based on a 5 minute sales pitch without doing any research or considering what happens when the ARM resets? I'll give a 90 year old grandma a pass for getting snookered by fraud, but some people are just plain careless with their money and mostly deserve the consequences for making bad decisions. That's not a popular viewpoint in the current environment, but the alternative leads straight to "too big to fail" and taxpayer funded corporate losses.
Keep the personal debt out of the equation for now. The fact remains that while inflation is "under control", it's not zero. And the costs of other necessary things (esp energy and healthcare) have continued to rise well beyond the "under control" range.
(in other words, exactly what you said)