No, but you need some wealth. Too few of us have even that any more and it's only getting worse. Of course the general public feels the rub, we're only human.
“Do well for themselves” is a bit of a spectrum. I’ve done well for myself, and I’d count myself amongst the (few) people that could afford to do a project like this.
I can also empathize with what it’s like to see videos like this when you don’t have money. Let’s not mince words, this van project, even doing it all yourself, is a $150k (minimum) project. In addition, they’re building it in a very, very nice autoshop with access to what I would guess is around $250k in shop, tools, etc separate from the van build itself. Unironically this van build is probably about as expensive as the median Ferrari is.
I am also pretty involved in the overlanding community. If you took 100 people with Mercedes van builds, conservatively about 80 of them are dipping into a trust fund to do so. Another 10 are tech entrepreneurs, and another 10 are “regular” people who saved up enough money to do this instead of a house.
I guess this is all to say, while I can afford this, I don’t blame people for outlining that this isn’t some quirky build, and is in fact more than most people will be able to afford in their lives.
As someone who earns about as much as the people (probably) earn in this video, I’d challenge the idea that there’s a correlation between hard work and income after about $120k. I worked hard to get the degrees and work experience to earn my keep. I don’t think I work as hard as a back of house line chef at a particularly popular restaurant, despite the fact that I earn almost 6-7 times their salary.
I guess what I’m saying is it’s a little tone deaf to write off people who make under $100k as people that simply “don’t work hard enough”. Could you call out their choices early in life? Sure. Could you say they aren’t as “smart” as people high up in the tech tree? Also sure.
But can you really say they’re all just lazy? I mean you could, but you’d come off as a hustle culture weirdo who doesn’t really understand how the world works.
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u/Triquetrums 14h ago
Exactly. My neighbour converted a van in his garage himself. You don't need generational wealth or any major wealth to do this stuff.