A couple days ago I saw a piece on TV about France emerging relatively unscathed from the world financial crisis. The thesis of the news item was that French culture was less consumer driven and that credit isn't very available or used. These ideas extend to the financial markets so that they are less dependent on credit and therefore aren't experiencing the crunch that others are.
To illustrate they interviewed a French banker who had worked in London and then moved back to Paris. He said that The British are very focused on fashion and acquisition of "stuff" and that he was glad to be back in France where things were different.
I was enough impressed by this to bring it up at lunch yesterday with a friend who immigrated from Poland. His response was a quick and emphatic "No." He maintains that the US should never consider such a change. He says that risk taking is what sets Americans apart and gives us our edge.
It never occurred to me that we need to be chronic overspenders in order to preserve our place and reputation.
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This conspicuous consumption, credit driven, in the U.S. is causing problems for the world economies. I sincerely hope this generation of credit abuse ushers in an age of austerity. It used to be the rule, that a mortgage required a hefty downpayment; now it is the exception. Also consider that the personal savings rate has decreased from 10% in 1980 to 0.6% now.
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