Americans are the world's worst savers says CNN headline.
Having stayed in this country for sometime now, I can vouch for that personally. There are so many avenues , some might say tempting avenues, to spend that its hard not to go that way. Apart from that, Americans are undoubtedly the world's best sales-people. Me and my wife in past three years have brought so many things that we had no compelling reason to buy. We just got sucked into that.
But isn't that precisely the reason why Americans have such a huge economy ? The money is always circulating and not stagnant eternally in banks of a few (unproductive) individuals. It keeps changing hands and spirals into growth.
I know of individuals in India and some in my own family who have accumulated millions in wealth just by SAVING and SAVING. To a large extent they compromised with "materialistic pleasures" and kept themselves happy looking at their bank accounts.
I am surely here not making a case for abusive, exhorbitant spending. Just pointing out to some facts about my own family.
Americans have enjoyed success largely because of this attitude amongst its citizen, that of letting money roll in the economy. And the best part is bankruptcy is not a social taboo here. As some might say even Enron can go bankrupt.
The interest rates are so low that nobody bothers to keep money in banks if ever that was the motivation. People would rather buy stuff and repay in installments. And even the installments now come at 0%; while some even go for deffered payments as far as by three years.
Wonder why Americans shell out so much than ?
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