HA! Wow does this resonate.

I'm probably a decade younger than you, but my parents were Silent Generation (born during Great Depression). My moms first memory was seeing her mother warm up a cup milk over a candle in a no-electricity boarding house they lived in.

Like many of that generation, they were big savers. Somehow (and I dont know how), they managed to save enough to fund a nice retirement including a home near a lake. Us kids were inculcated with their beliefs about money... we were constantly forced to think about "the value of X" - forced to do in-depth analysis of any potential purchase against a myriad of variables (do you really need that? can't you make do with X? is it better deal to purchase this instead? etc)

My lifestyle is a reflection of that. I'm driving a 20 yr old Toyota right now....have a iPhone 11, etc....even tho I have more than enough to enjoy all the latest and greatest. The fact remains that "saving / low time-preference" is so deeply built in me that I can't help but view the world in this way.

I often think about the idea that for the past 40-50 years there has been a systemic bias against savers, as slow fiat collapse induced consumption.....I think about how the emergence of bitcoin being sort of a environmental change in which "savers" were suddenly rewarded. Almost as if it was natural counterbalance. A natural selection process of unwinding the current system into a new system. One in which people like us were uniquely prepared to engage....