Senku chuckled. "Ah, but the population was much much higher. There weren't enough jobs for everyone so the longer they didn't have to enter the work force, the more time there was for people to retire. It was quite the system. There were nine million people in my city alone. And, because of that, it was one of the most expensive places in the world to live too. So while my dad made a decent enough salary, he sunk half of it into our rent alone." Economics were complicated.

He snickered. "I don't know about humble." He hummed. "Education became quite a big business. Once compulsory education ended you were responsible for paying for it so again, that's something else my dad paid for, unless you could get a scholarship by being smart enough that they wanted you."