|
 |
Eat Your Spinach
Chapter 2: The Soup You Are In: The Scope of the Problem
In this chapter, we make the quantitative case that unbridled consumerism
and poor saving habits (arising from reliance on a future bull market,
house value increase, government sponsored savings plans, low interest
rates, easy borrowing, or working longer), insure that you face a risk-laden
and insecure financial future.
Unchecked consumerism seems to lead to larger things. In the United States,
average house size, automobile weight and, indeed, human weight ( for
young and old) have increased rapidly in the recent past. Aside from the
minor logic that fat people may need bigger houses and cars, this trend
probably is best explained by a strong general desire to spend rather
than save. Indeed, in 2005 the aggregate American savings rate turned
negative. This may be because the bull stock market that ran from 1982
to 2000 has given people a sense of financial security and the hope of
some similar wealth-creating market run in their future. It may also have
some elements of “live as though there is no tomorrow, because there
may not be one” left over from the cold war and buttressed by apocalyptic
visions of the future from environmentalists and social critics.
|
More
in this chapter:
Bull Market Bull
Your Home is Your
Castle Not a Retirement Plan
401(k)? No Way!
Make “Work Longer” a Choice
Not a Burden
|
|
TOC
Chapter 1 Chapter 3
Chapter 4 Chapter 5
Chapter 6 Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Posted May 13, 2008.
Home
| Making Money
| Portfolios
| Dividends
| Retirement
| Articles
| Charts
| Stocks
| Tables
| |
