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In an article headlined "The Great Seduction," New York Times columnist David Brooks recently called attention to one of the "most important think-tank reports" released this year. Scholars associated with the Institute for American Values thoroughly investigated America's debt culture, and concluded it is time to confront it and return to an attitude of thrift.
KSL wholeheartedly agrees!
As Brooks and the Institute for American Values point out, the United States has been an affluent nation since its founding. It wasn't necessarily corrupted by wealth. But that, they say, has changed during the last 30 years.
Many Americans have turned their backs on the virtue of being thrifty in favor of the more immediate gratification that comes with unbridled spending fueled by easy credit. Indeed, an explosion of debt, fed by predatory lending practices, is ruining lives and weakening the nation.
KSL joins columnist Brooks and the Institute for American Values in calling "for creation of a pro-thrift institutional environment that would encourage financial health, regular savings and wealth building for all Americans."
Many Americans have been too easily seduced by the allure of easy credit and living beyond their means. It is time for widespread return to the time-honored values of "hard work, temperance and frugality."
