Americans can learn to conserve, nobody teaches them though. My daughter got through college pretty much on her own after an initial investment by me. She worked part time. I was amazed that she could get a job in a college town but most of those students, tens of thousands of them in her case, apparently don't work, she moved and had a job in a month. She shared the rent with as many people as they could cram into a place and she focused on grades, got out of UCLA in 2 years after community college. She shared one little room with a girlfriend for a while and, they slept on the floor basically. That's what it takes and many don't make the effort until they have to. She did not have to but I told her how much of life was shitty with no degree and she just went straight for the degree in a bee line....... leading up to that I taught her about diet, she is not a sugar eating piece of tired lazy shit, that makes a big diff..