What would happen if everyone in the country was somehow forced to be "good with money" ie lived within their means...

What would happen if everyone in the country was somehow forced to be "good with money" ie lived within their means, spent and saved responsibly, etc.?

Would this be a net good or bad for the economy in theory?

It would be incredible

Look at Japan

The key word is 'spend'.

Risk is the mothers milk of capitalism.

A lot of entrepreneurial endeavours wouldn't exist, as people would likely be more conservative with money. So many transactions you wouldn't consider 'responsible' would lead to a deduction of growth in many parts of the economy.

My guess is that the cost of living would go down, luxuries would increase in value due to smaller supply. You would live a more wholesome, but less colourful life.

I live in Germany, this was basically the default far into the late 90s. No credit cards, almost no loans, pay a lot cash.
Since the transistion has not come that far in the past 20 years, I doubt the effect would be overwhelming. Banking however would become more expensive for customers, also students would be fucked, because there is a widespread mix of scholarship/loans for them, that would technically be ruled out.
However, if "everyone" also applied to companies, I guess that would be more severe.

Banks would just specialize in investing that saved money instead of relying on giving out loans.

THIS

the jews would shut this down immediately.

if everyone immediately gained 20-30 IQ points and started doing that we would be on mars by now.

>Banks would just specialize in scamming that saved money instead of relying on giving out loans.
ftfy

It would be reported as being worse than the holocaust. I'm being serious.

The collapse of the American Economy.

Our society is built on debt and uneccesary spending. It's the foundation of the pyramid.

OP what you propose would end the up and down swings of our economy permanently, but overall our economy would lower bigtime.

It would be OK if by "everyone" you meant individuals.
It would be bad if by "everyone" you meant businesses as well as individuals.
And it would be ABSOLUTELLY CATASTROPHIC if, while individuals and businesses avoided debt, the government tried to do the same.

very bad

industries grow based on consumerism.
if you want to get really smart about it for example. only growing your own food locally so all restaurants and related businesses go down in an instant.

if its being smart like buying new shoes when they wear off, that hurts the economy in a way as well

This.

The economy thrives because idiots buy stupid crap, therefore the people who make a living making stupid crap can afford to buy food and more stupid stupid crap.

If everyone was frugal and saved money the economy would collapse because without people buying things no one can make money.

Happy Cyber Monday, everyone.

People who claim it would cause a crash is because OP said "forced to be"

If people were this way naturally it would imply a level of intelligence that would allow for society to not be built up the way it was in the first place and there'd be no catastrophe or whatever

It's hard to say what would happen but I think the capitalistic spirit of America would take a pretty big hit. Many people don't realize this but America is great because it gives you easy access to the 330 million other retards that live here. I know countless people living in the Canada and the UK who are pretty smart people but have no easy way to tap into the US market due to the logistics.

Yeah, they can ship internationally for exorbitant fees
Yeah, they can pay a premium to use a fulfillment center
Yeah, they could move their entire operations to the US

But at the end of the day, they can't compete with Joe Schmoe in Alabama printing out a rock bottom price shipping label and dropping it off the package at his local USPS.

If people smartened up, these entire industries would shrink.

Just think about this: have you ever seen a convincing TV infomercial that didn't look like a complete fucking gimmicky pile of shit? Of course not. It's all a waste of money. But there are MILLIONS of dumb Americans who don't realize this.

>He thinks Japan is good with money
>Biggest consumer culture in the world

alot of people say it would really fuck up real estate/ stock market...

if you invest, your benefiting from people sucking at finance

like buying mastercard or visa, your benefiting from people who don't pay off balance.

Good. Rich be less rich. Wealth be more evenly distributed. I would be done paying for tyquans fuck air Jordan's and dope.

>But there are MILLIONS of dumb Americans who don't realize this.
This is why I'm not afraid of starting a business, and in fact I'm really excited to do it. Even if you product is pure trash or literally shit (look at cards against humanity selling actual cow shit), there are *millions* of people who would still buy it. Even a 0.1% conversion rate on the entire country is still 300,000 people. That's a fucking high potential for profit.

people would make better long term decisions and be happier with the same amount of money

Depends on your definition of "good with money".

Rich people can buy playstations and shop at whole foods and they'll still be fine financially.

But poor people who eat off the dollar menu at mcdonald's is making a poor decision because they might as well eat rice & beans or pasta which is still cheaper.

if people stopped consuming like crazy starting from tomorrow i think

i don't think rich people do stupid shit like play xbox and eat caviar all day.

rich people in my opinion are smart both with and without money

consuming doesn't mean being bad with money
if you consume a lot while being good with money that is the perfect formula for a strong economy