I think I see a connection

Today, I read a fascinating article titled Debtor Nation. According to this article, the United States is consuming more than it is producing: last year, the difference was $850 billion. This is close to the total annual output of Brazil, the tenth-largest economy on the planet.

Two statements in the article caught my attention. One was this, from page 2:

Between 2000 and 2005, even as the U.S. economy grew 14 percent in real terms, and worker productivity increased a remarkable 16.6 percent, workers' average hourly wages were stagnant. The median family income fell 2.9 percent.

And, from page 4:

Households that used to be saving about 10 percent of their income as recently as two decades ago are now saving nothing. But, says Richard Cooper, "We don't know how to make Americans save more."

I don't claim to be an economist (as my posts earlier this month prove, rather conclusively), but I'm thinking this: if U.S. workers' wages were to grow at the same rate as the economy and their own productivity, they might be able to save a bit more.