Not true, we certainly have those that start at 8. Consider a ~45m commute and time to get ready, and waking up at 6 something is not unheard of. (I personally had to wake up at 5:45 to catch a bus to a school over an hour away).

What is not true? I'm just going off of what the gpp mentioned.

Now I don't quite understand what you have written here because you just say "we", but assuming you mean work colleagues then I think there is a bit of a difference between someone starting at 8, and making kids catch a bus at 5:45 so that they can start school an hour later at 6:45? That's not waking up at 6, that is out of the house before 6, and while you survived, it really shouldn't be necessary in a 1st world country.

While you did it, there is plenty of evidence that you could have done even better if you weren't subjected to it.