Not enough buffer to take 3-5 years to rebuild a career is not the same as no buffer at all. Personally I have about a year of buffer which is no where near enough to meaningfully retrain.

Why are you assuming every white collar worker has got an inflated salary, or that they’ve had it for a while?

And actually no, I can’t afford to be unemployed for a year. On COVIDs cost of living it would have been easy. But the current cost of living I’m not able to save even with my “inflated” salary. And the savings I do have isn’t going to stretch as far.

I honestly don’t know how people save on lower incomes. I suspect they don’t. Which is why the debt crisis keeps worsening.

I’m lucky enough to have assets but once they’re sold they’re gone. And most people don’t even have that luxury.

I think you're ignoring risk.

Even if you've saved enough for 1 to 3 years of university, there's a risk that you won't get a job especially if you're getting towards 40+.

Drawing down savings is a very high risk move, since you could easily never recover those savings because you may struggle to get a job that has a better ability to save as much.

Maybe they're spending it so their kids can stay in school instead of going to work.

I've been in this industry barely five years, 401k tax penalties are huge (and that's where a lot of the savings is), and rent is expensive