A Personal Perspective

Should Savers be the ones to Suffer?

Well, I ask myself. Is this really fair? I guess, you’d say is life fair? However despite the latter, I think that the way we encourage our society to act ‘appropriately’ is really a bit of a farce. Take the current economic crisis at present. Some people have just really over extended themselves and ended up drowning in debt, whilst others who have weighed it up have been fairly prudent, trying to save for a rainy day. One would think this was a good thing.

As kids, we are taught to be careful, put money aside. Yet these savers are being reprimanded. They are receiving ridiculously low rates of interest and many who counted on the interest of their savings to help cover living expenses can no longer do so. Does it only sound crazy to me? These savers did the right thing, they looked after their money, They placed their trusts in banks and now their money is also being eroded.

As for monetary policy – does it even work any more. Will low interest rates encourage savers to spend and boost the economy or will they be more frightened than ever to part with their quickly depleting accounts. So, I ask myself, do we scold the child who has saved their sweets for another day to prevent their teeth from rotting or do we reward them for being sensible??? These savers are few and far between and in this economy, we need them as they are the potential spenders, the potential injectors into our economy. Is cutting their disposable income really the way to get them out of the woodwork?