My wife just tipped me off to this NPR story that discusses the differences in saving habits between today and 25 years ago:

In 1982, Americans saved more than 11 percent of their disposable income. The personal savings rate dropped to just 0.4 percent last year. An economist blames easy credit - and how we think about money.

Twenty to 40 years ago, economist and Financial Times columnist Tim Harford says, "a lot of people were denied credit" because of their income, their gender or their race.

"It seems to me that we've always been willing to borrow, we've always been keen to borrow, if the lenders have been willing to lend to us," Harford tells Steve Inskeep.

You read a lot about people's paltry (even negative) savings rates, but do we save less because we are somehow worse money managers, or would previous generations have been in the same boat if they had had easy access to credit?

I think they wouldn't have been any different than us. I don't believe earlier generations were more virtuous savers because they had superior character; I think their environments played a huge role in that (especially if you go back to generations that survived the Depression and the two world wars). Your grandma or great grandma would've much rather been whipping out the credit card at Bloomie's than saving used tin foil for further usage.

The NPR story has an interesting ending, in that the economist quoted, Tim Harford, doesn't think that having less in savings-or carrying debt-is such a bad thing:

"How much do you want to sacrifice your income now for income later when you're richer?"

Harford says that as a college student, he worked and saved money, but sacrificed his own enjoyment in the process. "I made completely the wrong decision," he says. "That was crazy."

"Debt is your future self sending you money back in time. So the question is, are you and your future self both happy with the deal? Clearly you can borrow too much, but you can also save too much. We've just got to get the balance right, and that's not easy because the future is uncertain."