How, pray tell, is he going to retire on $438,000? On top of inflation, you're doing quite well if your portfolio gets 4 to 5%. That means one can safely draw about $20,000 annually from that.
The sad truth of a contracting economy is that most people can afford to retire by the age at which society seems to expect it.
2) Assuming he owned his apartment you can go Mr. Money Mustache on $20K dividends a year. If he owned a house he could downgrade as well.
3) There are people sailing around the world on a budget of $2000 per month. Just dividends from his severance and renting out his house (assuming he owned only that) would get him there.
I can totally understand the shock of seeing reality turn out drastically different than his expectations but once you get near the ~500K net worth figure, it becomes possible to cover necessities indefinitely.
Those people probably don't have reasonable health insurance.
$2000 per month puts you well into the upper class in the majority of countries. Those people have good health care, why shouldn't an American who goes to those same places.