Well, this is part of my question - what do economists mean when they talk about "savings"? Functionally, what upper-middle class people here seem to be doing with their extra money is "saving" - mainly, they're trying to accumulate for retirement. But what they're putting their money into is 401Ks, stocks, bonds, financial deals that I don't really understand, and land/property - which maybe aren't traditional "savings" vehicles. And they see to have a lot of money to put into these things - and do a fair amount of conspicious consumption as well.
Meanwhile, everything else is going to hell.
And on the national scale, when I read things like: "1% of the population holds 40% of all assets" - gad, to me that seems like a lotta "savings."
But I fear I am misunderstanding what economists mean when they use the word.
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