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From International Socialist Review, Vol.19 No.3, Summer 1958, p.74.
Transcription & mark-up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
One of the “cushions” which capitalist economists have boasted will help absorb the impact of any recession is the savings of the American people. The real score, according to Labor’s Economic Review (May 1958), is that the rich are sitting on most of the cushion:
“Most of the truly liquid personal savings – in the form of bank deposits, US Savings Bonds, postal savings and savings and loan and credit union shares – are actually held by a small minority of families. A close look reveals that at the beginning of 1958, eighteen million of the total of 57 million families in the United States (consumer spending units) owned only from $1 to $499 of these savings; another 14 million families owned none.
“Early in 1957, before the recession began, the average skilled and semi-skilled worker had $212 in these holdings and 26% had none. The average for unskilled and service workers was $6; 49½% had none.
“Actually, one-tenth of our families own about two-thirds of all these liquid personal savings.”
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Last updated on: 29 April 2009