Those brainy little squirrels...

I remember when I was a kid in grammar school, the teacher read a story to the class about how smart squirrels were. The story had a picture of a bushy tailed squirrel collecting acorns and stuffing them in a hole in a tree.

“Watch how they collect the acorns that fall in the autumn and store them in their nests to eat in the winter,” she said. “Don’t you think that’s really smart of them?” She then showed us another picture of the little squirrel perched in its hole, munching an acorn, while all around the world was buried in deep snow.

Of course all the kids, including me, thought those squirrels must be the smartest little animals alive. The lesson was simple, but effective. If you want to live comfortably and securely later, put aside a good share of all the acorns you find, instead of consuming them all now. Be a glutton now. Starve later.

I was reminded of that story recently when I read an article on the Bloomberg website.

Americans are “building their nest eggs at the fastest pace in 15 years,” the article said. That’s good, the article went on to
say. The trend will put the country’s finances in better balance and reduce our dependence on Chinese investment. . .but it might be bad, too. The move may restrain economic growth for years to come. After all, we’re a consuming economy.

Hmmmmm . .let me see now. Saving is good, but it’s bad, too. Somehow the logic of that argument escapes me. Then in another article I read that the Chinese savings rate is 50%, which is why they have money to lend to us. We haven’t been saving, which is
why we’ve come to depend on them.

Hmmmm. . .I guess those smart little squirrels really did know what they were doing. They worked hard in the fall, saved a good portion of their earnings and lived comfortably through the cold winter. I’ve been trying to find a reasonable resolution to this dilemma. If we save, it hurts the economy. If we don’t save, it hurts our kids and makes them dependent.

So, what’s it to be?

From my view, we’d be a lot better off in the long run to follow the example of those smart little squirrels.

I just wish the people in Washington would read that little book. Don’t you?
C. H. Bush, editor