[SavedintheCity]

Very interesting thread. Generalizations of course are in danger of caricturizing their subject, they are useful in definig broad cultural trends (with caveats). Although an American, I had the pleasure of living on the other side of the pond for quite some time in college. I do feel that Europeans (old and new alike) do have a different attitude toward money. Some of the previous posts have hit on the differences. Most can be linked to (IMHO) one central difference:
difficulty and expense in obtaining consumer credit.

You see in Europe as opposed to the US, they do not have a credit reporting system that ranks people based upon their credit. Don't misunderstand me, they do have a "black list" of bad creditors who have defaulted under previous loans. However, unless you specifically fall onto this Black List your credit history is completely invisible. The only thing the banks have to go on to loan money is tangible personal and real property. So lending and borrowing in Europe is more costly for both lender and borrower. Also, Europeans as opposed to Americans have a deep seeded distrust of borrowed money. It is a cultural phenomenon which relates to both deeply help classicist ideas (borrowing money seems to be reaching beyond your means) and a more collectivist society (families help each other out more). Most Americans save/borrow money for emergencies, education, retirement, and health care. In Europe, by and large, these items are richly subsidized by the government. Without venturing into a debate concerning which system is better, people have no need to save money if such items will be paid for them. So the risk/reward equation for saving is reversed in Europe. You do not gain any more security or independence by saving as opposed to spending your money. Therefore, Europeans are encouraged (macroeconomically speaking) to spend their money rather than save it. Borrowing is not necessary because you can easily forego short-term expenditures to save up for mid/large consumer items: you have no debt service payments so 100% of your disposable go be saved for the future consumer purchase. Americans, on the other hand, must independently fund debt service, retirement fund, long-term disability fund, health insurance, maternity leave, unemployment security, and whatever disposable "fun" money is left over. You can see that for Europeans, although they earn on average much lower salaries, their disposable income level is much higher than ours. Just my $0.02 or E0.01.