I just saw an analysis that blew my mind, and I decided to put the numbers on paper to understand the logic. The summary is unsettling, but it explains exactly why our generation (Gen Z) feels that the future is broken. It's a 50-year domino effect, and the bill has finally come due. In simple terms, it works like this: Money lost its backing (1970s) In the past, countries could only print money if they had gold reserves to guarantee that value. In the 1970s, the US broke this rule. Without this "brake," governments started printing money out of thin air, which began to inflate the entire world. Brazil tried to hold on with loans, but the bill charged absurd interest rates, and the result was the 1980s and 90s: the time when we changed currency 6 times and the market price rose three times in the same day. The Illusion of Homeownership (2000s) When the Real Plan stabilized the country, the "Real Estate Boom" arrived. Facilities like Minha Casa Minha Vida (My House My Life), consortiums, and easy credit emerged. Our parents' generation bought properties at the lowest historical low. The problem? Demand was so high that prices rose almost 200%. Today, property prices have stagnated at the peak of the highest historical high (average of R$700,000), while the average young person's salary has stagnated at around R$2,400. The math doesn't add up. It's impossible to buy a house playing the old game. The INSS Time Bomb Because young people look at this scenario and see that they can't move forward, the generation's response was to stop having children. The birth rate plummeted. And where does this explode? In the INSS (Brazilian Social Security Institute). The INSS is not a savings account where your money is kept; the young person who works today pays for the retirement of those who are old today. Since our generation isn't having children, in 40 years there will be many more elderly people retiring than young people working to support the system. Public social security will collapse. Conclusion: Investing has become a matter of survival. That advice from our parents, "work hard, buy a house, and wait for retirement," has failed. The rules of the game have changed forcefully. Today, anyone who doesn't focus on increasing their income to invest money in the financial market (stocks, real estate funds, fixed income) and make their money grow above inflation will be swallowed up by the system. It's no longer about "getting rich" but about not going hungry in the future.
Yes, big time!
