America's low savings rate

[Christian Gregory]

>
> I think it's because of the tax policy that encourages 401(k)
> contributions.  Many people put "some" money in there, but the majority
> of their balances are gains from the investments they made.  So they
> think they are "saving" more and don't do savings outside of that
> vehicle: they think they are covered.
>
> These gains don't show up in the "savings rate" so it looks
> artificially low.

But how artificially? If you _count_ 401k assets these days, wouldn't the
savings actually look lower than if you don't count them?

Christian