For a New Thrift: Confronting the Debt Culture

Jointly authored by a number of distinguished scholars and leaders from across the political spectrum, For A New Thrift powerfully addresses the linked problems of overindebtedness, lack of savings, and growing inequality in the United States. The focus is on institutions. When a society creates democratic institutions to encourage thrift, more people are likely to engage in the positive activities of saving, conservation, and asset building. When a society fails to nurture such institutions, limits access to them, or supports institutions opposed thrift, more people are likely to over-spend, fall into consumerism as a philosophy of life, and go into debt. For A New Thrift: Confronting the Debt Culture includes recommendations for the future.