Let me be frank. Without stupid people, FIRE would be a lot harder.
...
A lot of occupations wouldn't exist if people were smart enough to take care of their own health, finances, etc.
A lot of things would be different if people were smarter, but it would work out generally better.
I mean, fine, a guy like me who earns a living engineering software? We'd be a lot more common and I couldn't make as much money. That's true. But what if people were wiser with money (though not necessarily
smarter, per se). Let's assume we develop a cultural way of making everybody just
want to save money, live well within their means etc.?
The credit card and payday loans industries would just die. Mortgages would exist, yes, but car loans would be statistically rare beasts.
Would this be bad? Would all those people employed in those industries have nothing else to do?
Of course not.
All of the money that went to completely non-productive high-interest loan payment would be directed elsewhere. All of the FI people would be free to start their own businesses, create new things and make society better.
Remember that, at one point, 90% of our society was subsistence farming. When we shifted to using machines to save us a tonne of labour, did 85% of our society languish in unemployment? Not at all. Wealth is created by machinery and, with careful monitoring, ends up making society better.
So I don't worry about everyone learning to save money. We'll consume less crap, pollute less, and have time to make our lives better. I don't see any economic reason to believe this will cause some kind of collapse.
Toque.