It turns out that wages have gone up by more than 650% so it's easier to survive if you are willing to work.
If you want to dive into it I found a study from 2017 here. They say wages have exceeded inflation except at the very bottom, where they have lost about 1%. In other words, a person...
In another reality check, fifty thou a year will only buy 35% of the beer when this song came out. (https://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl?cost1=100.00&year1=198601&year2=202401)
That's just 2.8% inflation. Better step it up if you want sheep hunts through retirement! Over the last 70 years...
I immediately thought that this was for all the kids in the fetal position sucking their thumbs in fright. All these "influencers" have them convinced that they are doomed. It's actually a pretty serious problem. I know a lot of messed up kids.
Reality check. This was 1999. These days a million dollars will only get you 1.1 chicks at the same time. ($4800/month with COLA will get you about 0.7 chicks at the same time, even though they are theoretically equivalent.)
PS, that's only an inflation rate of 2.5% per year.
There's obviously a lot of variable, but if you use a simplistic approach of past returns the $1 million is worse about 60% of the time.
https://www.firecalc.com/
They say 4% withdrawal is sustainable if you know how to manage money; that would be $40,000 per year, or $3,333 per month. If you add in $1800 SS you would be at $5133 per month, so $1 million is a better deal if you know how to manage the money.
I think "hard savings" is what is needed. Even if you work hard and get good returns, if you aren't saving you won't have much money. Myself, I'm a thousandaire many times over.