Good advice... although this won't help 90% of people because of its nuance.

Pat hits on an interesting point but doesn't expand on it: Middle class.

Middle class is basically one of the best indicators of a society's function, sorry Marx... It transcend economic meaning. The middle class determines a society's cultural, scientific, moral, progressive, and educational standing and direction. Middle class spends like lower class, but they make money that can compare to upper class; they have education like upper class, but they work like lower class; they have high minds like upper class, but they reason like lower class; they have awareness like upper class, but are vulnerable like lower class, and hence work against status quo.

Not trying to suck the dick of the middle class too much, but whether there's a middle class is a good indicator of a society's health. The lower the middle class, the worse overall. That's why societal lows and highs are coincided with middle class lows and highs.

One of the reasons I don't put too much stock in Marx is because he said the middle class was the ally of the upper class... in fact that's the opposite. The middle class is the ally of the lower class, and protects it from the predations of the upper class... which is one of the reasons the Powers that be are so afraid of the coming renaissance of the middle class caused by the internet, and removal of the gatekeepers. There's no limit to knowledge and opportunity anymore, and new services like YT are making entrepreneurs that are beholden to few people.