What would a higher saving rate tell an interfaith discussion about stewardship? Less about character than the headline might suggest. BEA's January 30, 2017 release put December's personal saving rate at 5.4 percent. Its March 1 release reported 5.5 percent for January. These are separate historical release vintages from one agency, not two independent assessments of household conduct. [BEA 17-08][BEA 17-04]

The rate divides personal saving by disposable personal income, which is income after personal current taxes. Saving itself subtracts personal outlays and those taxes from personal income. Outlays include consumption, personal interest payments and personal current transfer payments. The accounting therefore reaches beyond purchases alone; a discussion that equates all outlays with shopping has already narrowed the measure incorrectly. [BEA 17-08][BEA 17-04]

Neither published ratio is an average or median household saving rate. Nor does the comparison identify who made a sacrifice, who gave help or who needed it. Calling January's higher figure evidence of greater virtue would require information about choices and circumstances that these national accounts do not supply. An aggregate ratio cannot do the work of that inquiry. [BEA 17-08][BEA 17-04]

Elm's ethical reading is to distinguish prudent provision for future obligations from generosity toward present needs without assuming they have a single correct balance. An interfaith conversation can keep that tension open and include nonreligious participants; this is our proposed approach, not a claim that traditions agree. A practical starting question is what resources and obligations a person actually faces, before attaching praise or blame to a national statistic. [BEA 17-08][BEA 17-04]

Source documents

  1. Personal Income and Outlays, January 2017 | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)https://www.bea.gov/news/2017/personal-income-and-outlays-january-2017
  2. Personal Income and Outlays, December 2016 | U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA)https://www.bea.gov/news/2017/personal-income-and-outlays-december-2016