Comments about ‘Americans saving more during tough economy’

What americans have learned and rightly so is that tangible assets, savings, are necessary for their future. The intangibles of debt are economic pitfalls to the working americans. Just because the financial industry has all the loop holes to their advantage does not mean debt is good for consumers or the economy. Debt is a disaster.

The $4,000 dollar TV's, $50,000 cars, and brand names are no longer considered priority spending. Jobs and incomes are half what they were 15 years ago due to the use of foreign and illegal labor. Business got what they wanted, low wages and labor costs to convert to profit. Well a recession is what they get in return. They cut off the hands that feed them.

When a financial industry basis its profits on consumer debt they are just asking for failure. The balloon has burst on the financial industry and it's time they live with tangibles and reality. It's a new way of life in America, for consumers and business.

The path to recovery is higher pay and benefits to workers who are tax payers.

My2cents, however cash on hand yielding low interest or returns can also be problematic. What you do with your savings is very important. Real estate is a great tangible asset as of now. With near rock bottom prices and a growing population, the real estate market will be poised for a future recovery. As the old saying goes, "they aren't making land anymore."

This is the "paradox of thrift.

"The paradox of thrift (or paradox of saving) is a paradox of economics, popularized by John Maynard Keynes, though it had been stated as early as 1714 in The Fable of the Bees, and similar sentiments date to antiquity. The paradox states that if everyone tries to save more money during times of recession, then aggregate demand will fall and will in turn lower total savings in the population because of the decrease in consumption and economic growth. The paradox is, narrowly speaking, that total savings may fall even when individual savings attempt to rise, and, broadly speaking, that increases in savings may be harmful to an economy. Both the narrow and broad claims are paradoxical within the assumption underlying the fallacy of composition, namely that what is true of the parts must be true of the whole. The narrow claim transparently contradicts this assumption, and the broad one does so by implication, because while individual thrift is generally averred to be good for the economy, the paradox of thrift. holds that collective thrift may be bad for the economy."

Thrift is good, as is self reliance, and also charity towards others which can be done if one is thrifty with their own assets.

We need to convince the federal government to stop spending and pay off our current debts and deficits.

True, Keynes does not approve, but every time our government goes down the Keynsian economics path, disaster follows.

Good on the folks who are saving, or at least not wasting money they don't have on things they don't need, or buying houses they cannot afford.