Post #256,160
5/21/06 1:55:34 PM
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Our national savings rate is now negative
The last time the U.S. savings rate was negative was 1933. The unemployment rate hit 25 percent, and more than 4,000 banks had closed.
It's hard to save money when you're selling apples on the corner.
In 2005 and so far in 2006, the savings rate is negative again -- we're spending more than we're saving. Unemployment is 4.7 percent, and the stock market is up almost 29 percent since the dark days of September 2001.
It looks like we're doing OK -- at least better than we were in the Great Depression.
[...]
The national savings rate is measured by the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis. The bureau looks at how much people make, how much they pay in taxes, and how much they pay for everything else. The outgo is subtracted from the income, and that produces the savings rate, measured as a percentage of disposable personal income.
In 2005, the national savings rate was a negative 0.4 percent. In the first quarter of 2006, it was negative 0.7 percent. In 1933, the savings rate was a negative 1.5 percent.
[...]
While the savings rate is negative, personal debt is up. In 1990, the average U.S. credit card debt totaled $2,966, according to CardWeb.com. In 2004, that amount ballooned to a hefty $9,312.
[...]
One reason people don't save is because many are spending more than they once did on health care, energy and insurance, according to Mesirow's Swonk.
"Yes, we save too little, we need to save more, we do consume too much. But we have to take into account what's happened to people," said Swonk. "People have to pay a larger portion of their paychecks for health care and pensions. They didn't have to do that before."
[link|http://www.suntimes.com/output/business/cst-fin-savings21a.html|source] lincoln
"Chicago to my mind was the only place to be. ... I above all liked the city because it was filled with people all a-bustle, and the clatter of hooves and carriages, and with delivery wagons and drays and peddlers and the boom and clank of freight trains. And when those black clouds came sailing in from the west, pouring thunderstorms upon us so that you couldn't hear the cries or curses of humankind, I liked that best of all. Chicago could stand up to the worst God had to offer. I understood why it was built--a place for trade, of course, with railroads and ships and so on, but mostly to give all of us a magnitude of defiance that is not provided by one house on the plains. And the plains is where those storms come from." -- E.L. Doctorow
Never apply a Star Trek solution to a Babylon 5 problem.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the United States.
[link|mailto:bconnors@ev1.net|contact me]
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Post #256,283
5/22/06 5:10:43 PM
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Our economics is a train wreck in slow motion
The car is starting to crumple as the train hits it...
That prediction was set for 9-10 years from now. It looks less ridiculous every year...
Cheers,
Ben
I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
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Post #256,315
5/22/06 8:14:56 PM
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Why are people paying more for healthcare now?
Matthew Greet
Choose Life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a fucking big television, choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol, and dental insurance. Choose fixed interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisurewear and matching luggage. Choose DIY and wondering who the fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fucking junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, fucked up brats you spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that? I chose not to choose life. I chose somethin' else. And the reasons? There are no reasons. Who needs reasons when you've got heroin?
- Mark Renton, Trainspotting.
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Post #256,318
5/22/06 9:31:09 PM
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malpractice insurance
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Post #257,822
6/6/06 10:29:14 AM
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You've been listening to physicians.
The percentage of money spent on healthcare for malpractice is flat (in some states, actually down). Hospital, drug company, physician and insurance company profits coupled with the fact that most Muricans want to eat SuperSized Fried Excrement, exercise by pushing buttons on their Nintendos, and then refuse to die and get out of the way when they're old is what's driving healthcare costs. It's been 6 years or so since I was in the healthcare insurance industry, but I doubt the fact that 80+% of all medical expenditures for an individual in this country is spent in the last 3 months of life has changed much.
bcnu,
Mikem
It would seem, therefore, that the three human impulses embodied in religion are fear, conceit, and hatred. The purpose of religion, one might say, is to give an air of respectibility to these passions. -- Bertrand Russell
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Post #256,320
5/22/06 9:45:16 PM
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Companies have cut back on benefits.
I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
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Post #256,353
5/23/06 9:08:37 AM
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Re: Our national savings rate is now negative
Thanks, Lincoln, for posting this. I noticed that our savings rate (in the USA) went negative several months ago and hasn't really gone positive since then.
Here's some government data:
[link|http://www.bea.gov/bea/dn/nipaweb/Nipa-Frb.asp|http://www.bea.gov/b...aweb/Nipa-Frb.asp]
I really don't know what will cause people to start thinking about savings again when personal consumer debt is so high (credit cards, etc). Time will tell, one way or the other.
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Post #256,381
5/23/06 12:59:44 PM
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That's OK, the people that can save are doing great!
Thus, it's a booming economy, and the Neocons have done their jobs.
[image|/forums/images/warning.png|0|This is sarcasm...]
Imric's Tips for Living
- Paranoia Is a Survival Trait
- Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised...
- Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win.
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Nothing is as simple as it seems in the beginning,
As hopeless as it seems in the middle,
Or as finished as it seems in the end.
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