Is that true ?Please tell me.

I don't think its so much an issue of social benefits but availability to easy credit that has lead to the decrease of savings in many Western Countries, particularly in the USA. Banks make it easy for people who are not really credit worthy to have credit cards and other loans that they would otherwise not have had. Non-Westerners, namely people who live in countries that do not provide much social assistance often get the impression that 'welfare' is a easy option. There is an impression that most people just want to live off welfare - no need to work, no need to save. I do agree that there are people who 'cheat' the social welfare system and I think it is good that 'cheating' cases are minimised where possible. However, welfare is by no means a 'get rich' route for people who are too lazy to work. Welfare is by most accounts, a small enough amount for people to survive as they find alternative sources of income. Welfare, contrary to what the people who don't live on it might think, is not a career option that most people go for. I look at many of my Scandinavian friends. By right, they should be very lazy because the Scandinavian countries have superb welfare systems. People pay high taxes (many times over 50% of their income) but the state ensures that everyone has world class health care and decent education. The Scandinavians I know play allot, however they are very focused and when they work, they are very hard working and productive people - a case of not working the hours but putting work into the hours. The Scandinavians I know are not reckless with money. However, in the USA, particularly with the recent subprime crisis, banks and financial institutions did not assess risk. Banks lent recklessly but the people became addicted to cheap credit. I think this is more of a reason why the savings rates in Western countries declined rather than social welfare. I'm not saying that Westerners don't save. I know my stepgrandmother, am American was very conscious about savings. But I think easy credit and a habit to get the young addicted to living on overdraft has not helped the high debts and savings levels.

To answer your question it means that no matter how small it is it is worthwhile. It is in our dialect which is PATIOS and there is not a dictionary for this language. Now Tigertang, the credit card is not for laziness because you should know that there are cost to having a card. Paiding those high interest rate is not an easy thing and you need to contribute to it. It is just ashame that there are persons who abuse the system just as the Welfare. There are geninue persons who are truly in need and really need the help but because of the abuse of the system it is not what it should be like. There is good and bad in every effort that is being make for a person to have a good standard of living because there is always someone who can masterminded it down fall in one way or the other. After I lost my job I open my own business and it was doing good until the haters decided to put me out of my business. I am now unable to survive because the world is in a crisis and my country is not different. So you see corruption and bad mind is what is hurting us in this world. Not laziness because I know there are person who is on welfare wouldn't make getting a job to qualify his/herself.

:) your comment is so interesting and makes sense. China is a country people save money hard for rainy days cause we don't have good welfare. we have to see to everything, people save hard due to lack of sense of security. and i don't understand your last saying "every muckle makes a muckle" for i can't find the word muckly in my dictionary. does that mean every penny saved is every penny earned? or ?

woo, thank you for your quick response. i live in China, and until recently i realized how stupid to put all my money in a savings account instead of investing in small low risk ways. If a mother has three kids to raise, that's absolutely impossible to bear the fees! No, i am sure. say "hi"to your kids for me :)

I don't think you were stupid to put your money into a savings account just cautious, you can still lose all your money by investing it somewhere even if it is low risk, there is still a risk. I will say hi to my kids for you, they are good kids and deserve a bit of money to help them do what they want to do when they are bit older, though not much!! LOL