Nearly Half Of All Americans Have...

[Vern Humphrey]

One consequence of a consumer economy is that the consumers are by design ever on the edge of being tapped out.

One consequence of a socialist system is that the people are by design disincentivised from saving.

[togor]

One consequence of a socialist system is that the people are by design disincentivised from saving.

How do ya figure? Couple ways one could go with this. Curious as to which one you choose....

[steelap]

One consequence of a socialist system is that the people are by design disincentivised from saving.

How do ya figure? Couple ways one could go with this. Curious as to which one you choose....

Probably thinking about the deliberately contrived welfare state of England. With socialized medicine, the dole, free housing, and so forth there are multiple generations of parasites that have never worked. This is known as the Democratic Party Ideal Society.

Everyone is brought to the same level - unfortunately, it is at the bottom.

I have no guilt over having worked hard and lived below my income so my wife and I can retire and do whatever we want. Let the grasshoppers starve.

Or as Paul put it in 2d Thessalonians,

8
Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but wrought with labour and travail night and day, that we might not be chargeable to any of you:
9
Not because we have not power, but to make ourselves an ensample unto you to follow us.
10
For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.

[togor]

Norway, Sweden, Japan, China, all countries with much higher government penetration into the economy than ours, with higher savings rates. To some extent I think it has to do with the national character. In many European countries the stores are closed on Sunday, even food stores. In America, that's considered a waste of precious shelf time for perishable goods (an idea I happen to agree with).

Easy credit has a lot to do with a low savings rate, and financial services has grown to be a (disproportionally?) large component to our economy, along with health care. Dangle a big ticket item in front of someone if they sign the paper and make the monthly payments....we've perfected it here. Heck the Federal Government runs on credit these days, so if the people follow suit, who's to be surprised. And here, even people with credit too crappy for a credit card can get a payday or title loan. In that respect England is a good example because it's another country with a highly developed financial component to the economy.

Someone could reasonably argue that America is going to have trouble staying a rich country if the main things we do are sell financial services and health care to each other.

[RED]

...less than $10,000 stashed away for retirement.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/06/42-p...ing-broke.html

This article is alluding to "Savings."

About 42 percent of Americans have less than $10,000 saved...

(401K's, IRA's, etc. are considered as investments, not savings).

The entire article is bogus and just more "The Sky is Falling," rhetoric generated by left wing journalists. My wife and I never had a penny in savings. We did have a nice home on 60 acres, 2 cars, 2 boats, and a 45 HP diesel tractor... all paid for and zero debt. I sold the house and land and bought another even nicer house built in a great new subdivision in NE Arkansas... I paid cash for the house (no mortgage). And, yes, I fall into the 42 percent that doesn't have $10,000 in "savings."

If you are a Democrat you want the future to appear bleak. Today, the future looks great. All time high records for employment and the economy is translating to record tax receipts for the Federal Government and the Left is crying in their beer.

[togor]

I clicked through to the "gobankingrates.com" article, through the cnbc page. All the way through, the subject is pretty unambiguous...."saving for retirement", which is going to include 401Ks, IRAs, 403Bs, etc. I see no distinction between investments and savings in any of the links. It's expected that young people <30 years old are likely to have <$10K in the can for retirement, but the stat that caught my eye was:

Adults 55 and over, on the other hand, have the highest percentage of respondents who have saved $300,000 or more — 23 percent.

However, about one-third have less than $10,000 saved. That means these baby boomers need to catch up on retirement savings if they won’t have other sources of retirement income beyond Social Security.

That's a lot of seniors still in the workforce in the decades to come.