To save or to spend? Americans ponder their duty

[Joanne98]

CINCINNATI (Reuters) - After the September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush urged Americans to go shopping. As he hands out $789 billion in economic stimulus, President Barack Obama has been less clear -- and Americans simply don't know whether they should save or spend.

"It's a tough question," said Cincinnati electrician and small businessman Mike Cavanaugh. "I think that in general the government wants us to spend. While saving may be better in the long run, spending I think can be contagious because we see each other doing it."

In Scottsdale, Arizona, business owner Bill Austin said the government's message has been mixed.

"The government doesn't know what's going to fix this, but I think they believe that people should start spending again," Austin said. But he's skeptical: "Just me going out and spending money isn't going to fix this."

After a year of being castigated for the consumerism that drove the nation's boom-and-bust housing market, Americans can be forgiven for not quite knowing whether they are doing the smart thing by spending or saving.

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSTRE51C19J20090213

Now it's our duty to spend! Are any of these people living on planet Earth?

[Uben]

1. If you save....

...and put it in the bank, then it gets used to make loans, which also stimulates the economy. Either way, the cash will be injected into the economy, so it doesn't matter how you choose.

[Raven]

2. Save, save, save!!! Let the wizards find another way to run the

economy other than on the backs of consumers. I don't mean hoard but we have a lot of lost savings to make up for.

[Uben]

4. I tend to agree.....

... but we have seen a lot of what savings we had cut in half by the market downfall. It seems it doesn't matter if you save or spend, the bastards are gonna take it either way!

[rucky]

3. Our duty is to regain control of our money

whatever that means to each individual situation.

[barb162]

7. The Russians are using safety deposit boxes a lot these days.

:eyes: Thoughts from their last severe recession.

[ixion]

5. our 'duty' is to spend? I don't think so....

:wtf:

And, you know, I'm getting really tired of being told a) I'm not spending enough; and, b) because of that, I'm causing this problem.

That is a LIE the size of the Great North Woods, and I think pundits should STFU or tell it like it is, rather than what their corporate pantloads tell them to say.

[MadinMo]

6. Ditto.

Being one of the masses of unemployed right now I am in the position of having to scrounge up $775 each month for COBRA. So I'm spending, but its pretty much all in one place.

I'm also getting tired of trying to explain to my kids without whining that we cannot spend willynilly on every new haircare product, magazine, logo t-shirt that strikes their fancies. When I asked my daughter if it made sense to her that we need to use up the cupboard full of bottles of haircare products we already have before we buy more, she snapped my head off.

[barb162]

8. The banks, after the huge bailout, should be lending

instead of sitting on the TARP billions.

Americans can't spend too much when they're jobless and penniless after these same corporations, banks, businesses, etc., have been shipping American jobs offshore for years.