Is the FIRE or early retirement movement actually cultivating more selfish and self centered people?

You got to ask people that are pursing this path. Chances are it is such a small subset that you do not have to worry that they are self centered and selfish. Most likely they will keep to themselves, and you will not notice their selfish behavior.

Knowing about it and embarking on it are two very different things all together.

I know there are those that are not on the path, yet they do not donate. So maybe we should be more worried about those folks

How does not planning for early retirement equate to donating to the poor?

If anything, most FIRE advocates seem to be less entitled and self indulgent with plans to spend their retirement meaningfully rather than working at BS jobs for consumerism.

Let me rephrase.

If you retire late, would you donate your hard earned money and investment to help the poor?

Consider that early retire means more time more emergency as compared to late retire. Thus in fact more likely to give back to society.

It is good that you are concerned. I’ll give a fictional example. Tony Stark is a filthy rich guy. Definitely can FIRE. He is an asshole, until he got that sharpnel in his chest. Given a second life, he became ”good”.

Another filthy rich guy is Bruce Wayne. He too is a good guy. However, he did not become good due to any incident.

If the person is selfish by nature, whether he is poor or rich doesn’t matter. He won’t donate, even if it is something simple, like giving up his seat.

Another logic fallacy is that you are assuming is that FIRE people will stop once they have enough passive income. If we assume they FIRE at 50, they can have up to 30 years of time to kill. They will eventually go to work, either as employee, or start their business.

So it is more important to guide/raise people to have morals, not just money-mindedness