Tldr at end.
I joined this subreddit assuming I would disagree with basically everything I saw but I wanted to understand how other people were thinking. I disagree with a lot, but I've also learned a lot.
I'm one of the ones who believed if I worked hard and smart enough I would make it. The family, the cars, the house and maybe even the savings.
Im a painter: houses and fences and stuff like that. Years ago I was working for a company where I was given immense responsibility because of my ability, while at the same time looked down on for my age, I started there at 19 years old and left when I was 22, not a long time I know. When I left I had worked my way to making $23/hr and my boss had just promised me $25/hr a couple days before I quit.
I went out on my own, started a business with a small bag of tools and barely anything in my bank account (cost to form the business legally was ~350 all in) and started asking people I knew if they needed painting work, sure enough someone did. I learned how to price jobs, collect and remit sales tax and all that. There were ups and downs in the first years, a lot of self doubt and a lot of intimidating new things to learn. But I didn't give up and I did it.
I did not make a lot of money the first few years, but just enough to get by. I'm now in my 6th year of being 100% self employed and the last couple years I've made a very decent income.
My wife and I have 3 kids, we have 2 personal cars and my work van, we can afford to pay for our own health insurance and last year we bought a house.
Encase youre wondering, no I did not recieve a small loan of a million dollars. I don't come from money, neither does my wife. We both came from broken homes.
I'm proud of where we've gotten but I'm not trying to brag, I really, firmly believe this is possible for many, many more people. It's scary at first and it's a different kind of stress than you're used to, but it's a motivating stress that you have some control over.
My message especially applies to young men and women who can work with their hands, if you want to do what I did I would suggest getting a trade job like carpentry, roofing, painting, electric, plumbing or something like that and spend a couple years learning how to do your job really well, then when you can do a job all by yourself start a business and work it part time until you have enough customers to go full time on your own. There is money to be made, you can even grow and hire your own workers and give them the kind of job you want to provide! It's possible still.
TLDR: I became self employed and made it in this messed up world and I think you can too!