Why Americans Don’t but Should Save their Money

Consumer spending accounts for seventy percent of country’s GDP.  It therefore follows that to improve our collective economic woes, we must spend our money.  The problem is that over the years a vast majority of American households have over-spent, are awash in debt and have little or no savings to rely on.   And that is not good for anyone.  According to our guest, Princeton professor SHELDON GARON, saving rates among U.S. households have fallen below 4 percent in contrast to some of the most prosperous European countries where the saving rate hovers between 10 percent and 13 percent.  So why don’t Americans save and why and how do other governments encourage people to build their next eggs? Sheldon Garon is the author of   the new book Beyond Our Means: Why America Spends While the World Saves and he joins us to talk about what we can do and what other governments do to foster the culture of spending responsibly and saving at the same time.

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[audio: 010312_100630.mp3]