Not 1870, but my great grandfather came to the US in 1905 or so with little more than the shirt on his back and worked a series of ‘regular person’ jobs until he died. The money he saved allowed several of his sons to start a small business, which did fine for several decades but went under around 2000. However that modest income split between the three brothers (one of whom was my grandfather) allowed them to save enough money to each become homeowners in the 50s and live a reasonable lifestyle in the suburbs. My grandpas frugality meant that even after he died young my dad could go to college without debt, and my dad has been somewhat frugal his whole life.

So by 2020, based on the savings from a series of people working ‘regular person’ jobs, most of my great grandpas descendants who are in my dad’s generation are very well off, several are millionaires (I’m excluding my dad because he was the smart one in the family and went to medical school, his job pays far more than a ‘regular person’ job). And this story is not at all uncommon across the US. The reason you don’t hear it is because there’s a big (especially in the Midwest) cultural aversion to discussing wealth or showing it off.

This is due to human nature, not what logical, future thinking beings should do.

I'm suggesting, that everyone can feel empowered, because assets or dollars invested today can be worth considerably more after inflation in the future. This should give EVERYONE hope.