Still, there is something about the U.S.: Nearly half of Americans would not be able to come up with $400 in savings in an emergency, according to a Federal Reserve study cited in The Atlantic's cover story this month. America’s poor and its middle class live on the razor’s edge of financial security through their working years and are uniquely ill-prepared for retirement. The United States finished 19th for three consecutive years in a global analysis of retirement security, behind Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Canada, and 13 European countries.
So, why don’t Americans save money? A complete answer should take into consideration three things:
(1) Since the phenomenon is new, its cause must be new.
(2) Since the decline in savings among rich countries is global, its cause must be global.
(3) Since America’s poor and middle class are so especially ill-prepared for retirement, there must be something “special" about America...
