Why Don't Americans Save?

Sitting down on a bench yesterday in one of California's biggest shopping malls, I overheard a young Asian woman from abroad ask another Asian woman "Why Don't American's Save?" It caught my interest because it is well known that Asian countries save more than here in America.

When I got home, I thought a little bit about this question because of the current economic situation as well as the ongoing trends in our society pointing out that we are a nation in debt.

To answer this question, I came up with these reasons:

• When we are young and go to college, most have to take out a student loan that takes away our ability to save after we graduate
• We are confident as a nation and of our abilities
• Two working parents in the household means more money available to spend (and blow)
• "Keeping up with the Jones'" syndrome
• We have lost trust in the stock market
• We watch too much television that programs us to push the boundaries on consumption
• Cost of living continues to go up.
• We started out as a nation of migrants and take extreme risks
• Interest rates on CDs and money markets are pathetic
• Because we want instant gratification and are becoming more impatient
• Cost of health care and insurance continues to rise. As we get older it gets difficult to save

But I think I could sum this all up in a paragraph:

Americans don't save simply because the present generation is spoiled rotten. We transfer wealth from an older generation to a less educated younger generation that does not fully understand what it means to work hard and appreciate the effort it takes. Families all want to give the best to their children and in doing so, they spoil them now instead of instilling strong work ethics and educating their children in how to save. It is the problem of failing to build the internal relationship between work, money, and savings that is the fault of this problem.