Investing won't make your rich by itself. Some companies make stock owning a loyalty program. Don't invest to pay off high interest debt, reimburse it first. You are a consumer that happens to also own some shares, not an investor. Instead of the pension funds owning the shares, it is now the people themselves that do. The wealthiest 10% of Americans own 93% of stocks even with market participation at a record high. Investing is the best tool for average people to build up wealth to fund some of the most important life goals like retirement and send kids to college. A diversified portfolio should be safer than an employee pension scheme which have been completely evaporated in dozens of high-profile corporate bankruptcies. It is highly unlikely that investment returns from current top companies will cover the purchases unless you made a significant investment when these businesses were much smaller than they are today. Millionaires didn't get rich by having multiple sources of income, they have multiple sources of income because they were rich: stock dividends, paycheck income, real estate rents, royalties, capital gain from appreciated assets, profit from business they own, interests.
How Money WorksLook at the data and statistics, not the news. The quality of life in France is bad, it is the most insecure country in Europe with many social tensions (700 protests per year) and Paris is the 32nd European city for quality of life. The system is failing with the 26th place in the PISA education ranking, free but useless healthcare (190 days for ophthalmologist and 90 for dermatologist), and €3000B of debt. Working isn't worth it when you have the highest corporate and individual taxes in the world, unemployment over 7% (2x more than the USA), and millionaires leaving (12k out of the 13k new millionaires in 2023 have left).
Théophile ElietThe intelligent do not like to be governed by idiots. A sum of responsible individuals makes a responsible society. You can avoid reality but not the consequences of having avoided reality. The problem with socialism is that one day we will run out of other people's money. Bureaucracy pushes the entrepreneur to the start, taxing entrepreneurship is stifling innovation. High risk should mean high reward, why take risks if it is to be paid as much as an employee who does not take any? Everyone does things for themselves (suburban area) vs Everyone does not care about anything (social housing area).
Ayn Rand