Interesting line......

Moreover, for the first time since the Great Depression, Americans took more aid from the government than they paid in taxes.

From here. So, what do you think about this? Is this collecting of aid a result of the severity of the downturn or something else? Well, it could be both and there is probably a dash of entitlement in this. Handouts from the US government are ubiquitous and if you do not take when it is offered, you are stupid since everyone does it. Getting back to the topic, there is no doubt that there was a severe recession and probably the worst since the downturn in 1973-1975. However, one of the major changes that went on since the recession of 1974 is that saving by Americans had dropped dramatically....



So, the US has had a demographic bulge that should have been saving and they did not. Why? They choose consumption over savings. Also, the opiate of Social Security and Medicare may have had an impact since people think that they have retirement savings offered by this Ponzi scheme. Additionally, government taxes are hostile to savings relative to consumption and people do not think that it is worthwhile to save.