Monday, May 19, 2008
Are we too dim to save?
MoneyWeek: Are we too dim to save?
"...an awful lot of people in the UK don’t save not because they are too dim to open a bank account, but because they get paid the minimum wage.
After paying all Gordon Brown’s rapacious taxes, their out-of-control mortgage or rent, buying a few bus tickets and eating, they’re lucky not to be bankrupt. Saving is a distant dream."
Posted by damien @ 09:03 AM (612 views) Add Comment
4 Comments
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1. hpwatcher said...
Inflation - and a speculative economy - discourage saving. The only people who could have changed this are messers Brown & BOE and it seems that they have chosen not to.
2. cornishman said...
@ hpwatcher
By using the word 'chosen' you assume that Brown actually recognises your first statement. It might be simple incompetence.
3. letthemfall said...
Good to see the exorbitant charges of the financial services highlighted. They have long been a ripoff. If there is one single thing with which to damn this govt., it is their abetting of the accumulation of wealth into the financial sector. All the rubbish talked about generating wealth is nonsense: the investors generate wealth and the bankers help themselves to a huge slice in return for reducing its value relative to the economic performance. This is where ripoff Britain is really to be found.
4. drewster said...
There's another side to this. In the past, people saved for a rainy day - they would set some cash aside in case they became unemployed or too ill to work. These days thanks to the financial services boom people know they can rely on their credit cards or the equity in their house if disaster strikes. As the subprime debacle proved, banks were only too willing to lend to people regardless of their employment status. Now that the credit crunch is biting, people who fall on hard times will discover the banks are no longer so accommodating.
I also agree with hpwatcher, inflation is a major disincentive to saving.