Judul di atas adalah tema debat dalam Room for Debate New York Times versi online. Walaupun, Amerika Serikat adalah negara supermaju, namun jika dilihat dari opini para narasumber, maka dengan sangat mudah kita akan mengatakan bahwa penyebab orang Amerika tidak bisa menabung sama dengan kenapa orang Indonesia tidak punya tabungan.
1. Poverty:
Thomas Geoghegan, a labor lawyer in Chicago. “In the U.S., the over 43 million people living in poverty aren’t going to save…”
2. Patterns of Spending:
Tyler Cowen, a professor of economics at George Mason University, “…median household has became stagnant for the last 10 years,…tend to carry their”savings” in form of human capital,…tax system does not encourage savings,…credits, more spending …”
3. Mid-teens unemployed and Debt:
Barbara Dafoe, Whitehead directs the John Templeton Center for Thrift and Generosity at the Institute for American Values,”…The percentage of Americans who are unemployed or underemployed remains in the mid-teens…their savings behavior is often overlooked because it takes the form of paying down debt.”
4. Saving Rate:
Daniel Gros, is the director of the Center for European Policy Studies,”What matters is not only how much households save, but the national savings rate”.
5. Mortgage:
Mike Konczal, is a fellow with the Roosevelt Institute.”People are desperately trying to pay down bad mortgage debt after the housing collapse”.
Masalah kemiskinan, penganguran, hutang pun menjadi kendala bagi rakyat di negeri yang kaya akan sumber daya alam ini (Indonesia), untuk menabung.
Ditengah rencana pemerintah untuk menaikan gaji pegawai negeri, sebagian besar buruh di berbagai pelosok negeri masih harus bertarung dengan pengusaha-penguasa, hanya untuk sekedar menaikan sedikit upah minimum regional. (sfm).
saam fredy marpaung 