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"Sheldon Garon is the world's leading historian on household saving, and never has his work been more timely. In
Beyond Our Means, he offers outstanding historical scholarship, remarkably engaging reading, and practical insights for addressing our current financial mess."
--Michael Sherraden, Washington University in St. Louis"
Beyond Our Means shows that we need more than economics and psychology to determine how societies save and spend. Garon reveals the history of farsighted reformers, politicians, and bankers who actively shaped the norms, incentives, and institutions that turned rising earners into savers. He delivers strong lessons for those who worry about today's overspent America."
--Jonathan Morduch, New York University"Garon's insightful and provocative new book couldn't be more important, and couldn't be more timely. The prosperity of Americans, and America, now depends on creating a nation of savers and investors, and Garon shows us the way by bringing the experience and lessons of nations worldwide right into our hands."
--Ray Boshara, senior advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis"This is an important and timely book. It effectively makes the case for viewing savings behavior neither as primarily a cultural trait nor one produced by market forces, but as something fundamentally shaped by policy, politics, and institutions.
Beyond Our Means is an uncommon pleasure to read."
--Andrew Gordon, author of The Wages of Affluence"This will be a unique and important book for historians, for policymakers, and for the general public.
Beyond Our Means issues an important challenge to cultural explanations that will resonate far beyond the topic of savings. I learned a tremendous amount."
--Lawrence B. Glickman, author of Buying Power: A History of Consumer Activism in America
List of contents
Introduction 1 Chapter 1: The Origins of Saving in the Western World 17 Chapter 2: Organizing Thrift in the Age of Nation-States 48 Chapter 3: America the Exceptional 84 Chapter 4: Japanese Traditions of Diligence and Thrift 120 Chapter 5: Saving for the New Japan 143 Chapter 6: Mobilizing for the Great War 168 Chapter 7: Save Now, Buy Later: World War II and Beyond 194 Chapter 8: "Luxury is the Enemy": Japan in Peace and War 221 Chapter 9: Postwar Japan's National Salvation 255 Chapter 10. Exporting Thrift, or the Myth of "Asian Values" 292 Chapter 11. "There IS Money. Spend It": America since 1945 317 Chapter 12. Keep on Saving? Questions for the Twenty-fi rst Century 356 Acknowledgments 377 Appendix 381 Abbreviations 383 Notes 385 Selected Bibliography 435 Index 449
About the author
Sheldon Garon
Summary
Why Americans aren't thrifty and the rest of the world is
If the financial crisis has taught us anything, it is that Americans save too little, spend too much, and borrow excessively. What can we learn from East Asian and European countries that have fostered enduring cultures of thrift over the past two centuries? Beyond Our Means tells for the first time how other nations aggressively encouraged their citizens to save by means of special savings institutions and savings campaigns. The U.S. government, meanwhile, promoted mass consumption and reliance on credit, culminating in the global financial meltdown.
Many economists believe people save according to universally rational calculations, saving the most in their middle years as they plan for retirement, and saving the least in welfare states. In reality, Europeans save at high rates despite generous welfare programs and aging populations. Americans save little, despite weaker social safety nets and a younger population. Tracing the development of such behaviors across three continents from the nineteenth century to today, this book highlights the role of institutions and moral suasion in shaping habits of saving and spending. It shows how the encouragement of thrift was not a relic of indigenous traditions but a modern movement to confront rising consumption. Around the world, messages to save and spend wisely confronted citizens everywhere—in schools, magazines, and novels. At the same time, in America, businesses and government normalized practices of living beyond one's means.
Transnational history at its most compelling, Beyond Our Means reveals why some nations save so much and others so little.
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"[A] historian of modern Japan, driven by his concerns for America's financial future, has devoted years of research to writing a global history of saving, and he has produced a superb book. . . . [A] timely history book of great contemporary relevance [that] has already embarked on a journey in new directions for public policy and global historical studies."---Elya J. Zhang, Reviews in American History
