and ceremonial objects. Anthropological digs unearth bins and storage
jars filled with valuable treasures.
The emotions associated with savings are deeply ingrained in our psyche.
Saving requires work beyond producing the daily bread. Hard work creates
a sense of entitlement. Workers earn their Social Security payments. Savings
are not a gift from anyone. Savers do not trust individuals with their
hard-earned cash. Only God or good government can be trusted.
Saving requires a deep faith that the excess will be preserved for future
use. A safe community is necessary; without it, savings will be stolen. Saving
tests our faith in the community.
Today we save as a community through government-guaranteed bank
accounts, Social Security taxes, and other government taxes and programs.
The current debate over Social Security and Medicare is part of our ritual
and ceremony. A threat to savings is a threat to the whole community. The
idea that Social Security should be “invested” in stocks challenges the sacred
nature of savings.
Savings evoke deep emotions. Saving is about entitlement and faith, not
fear and greed. Entitlement and faith are derived from generational experience,
religion, and the meaning of life. Every community has had a Great
Depression. Hard work does not always produce excess. When the well
runs dry, the community ends. Communities such as the Inca and the Anasazi
tribes worked hard, created vast roads and irrigation system, yet disappeared
from the planet. Hard work does not guarantee anything. The Roaring
20s were full of frivolity, yet produced abundance; the 30s witnessed
hard labor that did not overcome scarcity.
Good gods or good government are required to produce savings. The
ancient tribes had rituals, harvest festivals, and the like to protect and celebrate
their savings. Their feelings were primal and intense: gratitude for
the bounty of nature but entitlement to share that bounty once harvested
and stored. Every member of the tribe was involved. Today, feelings about
savings are just as primal and intense, and involve every member of society.
When savings systems collapse, no one is unaffected. In the 1930s,
massive bank failures lead to deflation in some countries and hyperinflation
in others. Incredibly strong feelings were unleashed. Desperation led to
Nazism, wars, revolutions, and massive New Deals. When all savings disappear,
gods are abandoned and governments overthrown.
Read More : Saving as faith
