ARROYO GRANDE, Calif. (MarketWatch) -- OK, let's stop the charade and admit the truth. Why does America have a zero savings rate? Because America has no savings policy. Period. For more than a decade, Washington, Wall Street and Corporate America have favored a national spending policy at the expense of a national savings policy.
So when these policymakers tell us to "save more," they're happy-face hypocrites hiding their real goals. They really want you to spend, not save!
In pure economic terms, the choice is simple. You can't save and spend too. And especially since the 2000-02 recession, our policymakers have consistently voted in favor of spending, not saving. So read my lips: America's savings policy is a fake, bogus, phony, fraudulent, bankrupt and, oh yes, non-existent. Why? Because our policymakers don't want you to save, they want you to spend, spend no matter how deep you go into debt. Ignore their rhetoric, watch their actions.
No wonder the new Securities Industry Association report on retirement savings stands out like a sore thumb: From the 1950s through the 1980s, Americans were saving over 10% annually. Since then, our spirit of thrift spiraled into a negative savings rate.
Today "nearly half of all American households are not saving at all and only about one-third of all U.S. families are saving enough to maintain their standards of living in retirement." And don't tell me that 401(k)s, home equity and stock appreciation aren't included. You're in denial and rationalizing.
But this is not news. We've heard this a million times. You've heard it. So have all your senators and representatives, the president, Wall Street and Corporate America. But the problem is so enormous, we're paralyzed. So nobody's doing anything! Not individuals. Not the government. We're passing our failures on to future generations, as we slip deeper into a bottomless tar pit of debt and deficits.
Reading the same old disaster warnings, over and over makes me mad as hell. Too much money has been wasted on all this repetitive rubbish.
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