And just to address specifically: Reducing their risk appetite is exactly the opposite, again. It’s the inflationary environment that pushes trillions of dollars into bullshit indexes trying to grab a reliable 5% per year just to not get butt raped by inflation, which shoved every bit of useful capital into giant, bloated corporations with the literal least chance of significant growth, because they’re already huge.

Savings on the other hand gives optionality. It means that people can just build what they *want to see in the world,* even if they don’t make any immediate, or even ANY profit. I can only use myself as an example here. I have enough savings that I’m hiring developers to build an app that solves a huge, persistent, infuriating problem I’ve had for more than a decade. I went into it not caring if it would be profitable, I simply want to see this problem fixed, I know I can do it, and I’m pretty sure a huge number of other people would love to have it too.

If I was finding this on debt, the project literally could not ever happen, unless I knew it was going to be huge and could pay itself back. Because I’m using savings, I don’t really care, I just want to build something awesome.

People aren’t homo-economicus. We aren’t machines, we have dreams, lives, families, and passions. Money isn’t an end, it’s purely a means to protect ourselves from uncertainty, and connect us together as a society. The idea that we won’t do anything if money goes up in value, we won’t take any risks, and we will just sit around “getting rich” with money. Is less about misunderstanding “economics,” and more about misunderstanding the human spirit and the purpose of life.

When people are scrambling, in debt, and trapped in their situation, their spirit is crushed, they are afraid of everything, and never want to “step out of line” because other people control their living standards.

When people feel secure in society and in their position in life, they do fucking incredible things.