You want to know why you probably donât have to keep up with the Jonesâ? Because you are the Jonesâ.
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Why don't Americans save?
- Thread starter Debaser82
- Start date
Exactly!Quote from mogar:
When I was a teenager back in the late 60 early 70âs a welder at any old shop could own and pay for a house, have a wife and kids and he could make it. Also I was earning about 6 to 7% on a savings account.
Today you need two good paychecks to make it. Savings accounts pay less then 1% today. It is no surprise to me that people donât save because itâs a suckers bet today. You donât get paid any thing if you do it. You are probably better off just sticking it in a safe somewhere then putting it in a savings instrument; at least you will get your money back. The inflation figures reported by the government donât even pass the laugh test. They only apply to you if you live in an abandoned auto in a Kmart parking lot and you are on food stamps.
So if you save it and can manage to make say 3% real inflation will eat more then that and to add insult to injury the IRS will tax you on it.
Is it really any surprise that we donât save when the entire system is geared to push people to burrow? The purchasing power of the currency is always going down. The rates paid to savers have all but vanished. I have savings but I view any dollars I have as a wasting asset and I am always on the lookout for hard assets to convert my savings out of the little green coupons.
I have mentioned this and other things like this on ET a little. When I suggested that somebody who works 40+ hours a week should be able to afford a decent standard of living, I was called a Socialist. When I mention how the cost of living keeps going up, and wages are continually stagnant I am usually called a lazy complainer who thinks theyâre entitled to a middle class lifestyle. When I mention that perhaps the baby boomers had it much easier than my generation, Iâm usually told that I have a victim mentality and to just go work harder. Letâs just say all of the nameâs were true? Does that make what I say any less true?Quote from seauouch:
100% right, I love how its in vogue now to chastise American taxpayers for not saving. Why the hell would anyone save when interest rates on savings minus inflation is negative??? The government inflation rates are a joke, sure computers & TV's are cheaper now than 10-20 years ago but important stuff, housing, education, health care. food & energy have gone up 500% since the 80's. My grandparents bought their house in the 60's for 9k the same house is worth 800k today. The average house in my town in 500k ( even after the RE bubble burst ) How is the average person supposed to buy a house & start a family without going into massive debt ?
On another ET thread, I offered the idea that perhaps people keep going into debt because the cost of living keeps going up and up and wages keep staying flat or dopping. I was heavily critisized and told to work harder and get a better job. Presumably I and others are supposed to get better jobs by spending thousands on college which inevitably means taking out more loans since itâs so expensive. So the solution to paying off your debt, is to take on more of it?Quote from hoodooman:
CNN had a show on this week were they maintained that the average american family had 11 credit cards and was carrying about 11k in debt on these alone.
But what is the cost of living and what is a decent lving? I know some people working those crappy jobs but living just fine becuase their expectations are aligned.The american left seems to want to say it means a middle class existence for everyone. That was never possible, and it should not have been promoted in the first place. This is the fault of the political left for convincing a segment of our population that they are entitled to material items.
Poor people in the US have cell phones, cars, cable TVs, and pump out kids as if the kid fairy will take care of them. As soon as you make material items like health care and a standard of living a right, then starts the path downward.
-"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. "
Benjamin Franklin
Poor people in the US have cell phones, cars, cable TVs, and pump out kids as if the kid fairy will take care of them. As soon as you make material items like health care and a standard of living a right, then starts the path downward.
-"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. "
Benjamin Franklin
How would you feel if you worked all your life lived within your means? Saved a lot of money then lost it all in a failed bank, a bad fund manager.
Yes you are insured for 250k but what if you had 2 million in savings.
WELL WAKE UP! THATâS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENING.
Yes you are insured for 250k but what if you had 2 million in savings.
WELL WAKE UP! THATâS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENING.
Well I definitely think that you raise some very good points. Thank you for pointing out specific topics rather than the typical barage of useless comments I seem to get around here. I think you have some valid points. I donât think that we really need to focus on politics here. The left may have instilled somewhat of an entitlement philosophy, but the right has done absolutely nothing to help out the little guy. Whatâs their solution to everything, more tax cuts and bomb more countries. I believe the bottom 50% only pay 5% of the income taxes. So how would lower taxes help them? Anybody who thinks cutting capital gains or corporate taxes will encourage businesses to create more jobs, is seriously mistaken. I do think unions and the left perhaps have kept the rich and corporations in check by this mentality. Otherwise the free market that the right seems to love so much, would simply turn into survival of the fittest and well connected.Quote from Mav88:
But what is the cost of living and what is a decent lving? I know some people working those crappy jobs but living just fine becuase their expectations are aligned.The american left seems to want to say it means a middle class existence for everyone. That was never possible, and it should not have been promoted in the first place. This is the fault of the political left for convincing a segment of our population that they are entitled to material items.
Poor people in the US have cell phones, cars, cable TVs, and pump out kids as if the kid fairy will take care of them. As soon as you make material items like health care and a standard of living a right, then starts the path downward.
-"When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic. "
Benjamin Franklin
All I can say to answer most of what you said is to point out some of my situations. No company Iâve worked for offered health insurance, so my personal policy has gone up 50% in 5 years. My credit card that I used to start a business went from 8-24% even though I have perfect credit history. I deliver pizza and donât really need to say much about what gas prices have done. Anytime I go to the mechanic I have to shell out at least $500. A one bedroom apartment where I live is still over $1000 a month. Sure maybe I could get a roomate, but we all know how unreliable people are nowadays, Iâll end up stuck with the whole bill. Everything else except my car insurance costs more than 5 years ago, yet the job prospects have all gotten significantly worse. Right now, I make less than I did back then.
My sister, brother, me, and pretty much every other young person I know all work at restaurants. Why? Because there is literally no other decent paying jobs out there. Nobody is going to give us decent pay, so we have to find jobs where we get a little bit from 10-20 people a day. Most of us still live with our parents. I work so hard but just canât seem to get ahead. In the meantime everything keeps going up and up and I just canât seem to even maintain my current level of income. So you wonder why people canât save.
I think you may be confusing the irresponsible poor with those that really just canât get ahead. I certainly agree that they have too many kids. Nobody I know has ever bought a new car, mine is a 1992 Camry. We have lived in a small townhouse my whole life. I indulge once every 2 years and get a decent cell phone, which I need for my job anyways.
Ben Franklin is right. But if people made more money and saw more opportunity, they wouldnât vote for more entitlements because they know they would be paying for. People who are working so hard, but canât get ahead, donât seem to know why. So I contend the rich will bring about socialism, not the poor. Yes the poor voted for them, but rich peopleâs greed caused a lot of the sentiment. I voted for Bush. I was so discusted with the Republicans that I went third party this time. If I donât see some serious changes in the party, Iâll just vote Obama in 4 years.
Quote from Debaser82:
I live in that pighole of a socialist europe where the government takes 50% of your salary, you don't get to work for your own pockets untill after the summer, and still people over here save more then 10% of their income.
What gives?
Is it because the FED has run a more inflationary course then the ECB eroding the purchasing power of the dollar causing people to search for alternatives?
Or is it the US spirit where people are always on the outlook for the next bubble to grow so they can hop on and become rich overnight?
Or is this how capitalism is supposed to work? If you can't cut it bad luck and good night see you in the souplines?
Little bit of all above.
One dominant trait in US is the instant gratification.
Whole generations were molded and programmed by marketing machine to forget about tomorrow and buy it now. Everything was available on credit.
Another trait is the selfimportance and sense of entitlement like
" I deserve this " so let's go shopping.
It will be very hard to teach kids about importance of saving when they see their parents and grandparents savings wiped out by recent market crash.
I hope that things will get better for you in Romania.
A
I guess youâre getting at a bigger point, but everybody knows accounts are only insured up to 100k and now I guess itâs 250. You should divide all the money between several banks. I think the odds are much greater that your savings is eroded through inflation, rather than a bank failure. That is the true crime today.Quote from Aaron Copland:
How would you feel if you worked all your life lived within your means? Saved a lot of money then lost it all in a failed bank, a bad fund manager.
Yes you are insured for 250k but what if you had 2 million in savings.
WELL WAKE UP! THATâS EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENING.