> end up having the most expensive health care, higher education and apparently, prison system in the world; that this fact does not trigger more thought and di

> end up having the most expensive health care, higher education and apparently, prison system in the world; that this fact does not trigger more thought and discussion; I'm thinking that a defining quality of Americans is their propension to spending. Saving money is just not something they seem to think about- it's not what you save that is important, but the total amount of money circulating in the economy. There are little incentives to make things less expensive, there are more incentives to consume as much as possible, both for privates and for businesses. It's wasteful, but contributes to make the economy stronger (even if the resulting society is more unequal and harder for those who earn less).