Oh man, I read this guy as being totally tongue-in-cheek. I think the article is pretty humorous, and does contain some kernels of truth. I mean, who among us would argue that this ISN'T the norm for most of America:
"Because everyone wants more money. You get one house, you want a bigger house. You get a bigger house, you want a vacation house. You get a vacation house, you want a fucking yacht. There's always some next level of rich asshole above you to make you feel like your life isn't awesome enough. That's just how America works. This is why Barefoot Contessa cookbooks make me angry."
This is the social convention we Mustachians scoff at. But it is absolutely the norm.
And there is an element of inescapable truth here as well:
"The rest of us have to go into debt to keep up with those people, and so everyone borrows a shitload of money to pay for school, and then the tuition rates skyrocket, and then the next group of suckers go even deeper into debt to catch up. Twenty years from now, that $100,000 will be the fucking poverty line."
But most of all, it's just a veiled rant about income inequality, which is an inescapable fact in this country. Yes, you can argue about whether or not it should matter, but there is a very real dynamic at work in this country whereby the very rich are in the process of consolidating their wealth and power at the expense of the rest of us. Many of the things we take for granted and that allow for us to even consider the concept of FIRE, like reasonable working conditions, decent wages and legal protections, were once gained through blood, sweat and tears from resistant oligarchic industrialists. There is a sliver of society that would love to return us to those conditions (think Koch brothers). So complainey-pants isn't exactly the right term to use for anyone with any sense of history.
At any rate, I took it for a fun rant.