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You can find more fully developed treatments of these ideas in the full report which is available at newthrift.org.

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With a few adjustments in our own personal financial habits, we can all renew a sense of thrift at the individual level, but a nationwide culture shift that reestablishes thrift as a core value can only be achieved in the context of a broad-based, well-sponsored, and government-backed social movement.

The Commission on Thrift, in conjunction with the Institute for American Values, recently released a report entitled "For a New Thrift: Confronting the Debt Culture" wherein they offer several thought-provoking policy recommendations that go hand-in-hand with our efforts to revive National Thrift Week. Below, you'll find a sampling of some of their challenges to our nation's leaders:

Reestablish an On-Going, Year-Round Public Education Campaign

Reviving National Thrift Week for seven days out of the year would be great, but it in order to have a deeper impact on our society, an ongoing education campaign—similar to those that warn us against smoking or drunk driving—is necessary.

Create a Thrift Savings Plan Available to All Americans

Create programs that provide any willing citizen the educational support and facilitation services necessary to use the stock market and build wealth through investing. The federal government already provides such services tofederal employees and members of the military.

Support Credit Union Expansion and Innovation

Small-scale economic cooperatives, through which members build and pool their savings and offer one another access to affordable credit, are the precise foundations on which a social movement to build wealth among people of modest means can best be built.

Expand Community Development Finance Institutions

Community Development Finance Institutions (C.D.F.I.s) provide lower-income communities with capital and constructive financial services. Most operate as not-for-profits. U.S. Congress should consider, perhaps as an expansion of the CDFI Fund, inviting proposals for, and supporting financially, up to 100 pilot projects across the country aimed at innovation and effectiveness in meeting the currently unmet savings and credit needs of millions of Americans.

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Repurpose the Lottery

In keeping with the thrift ethic, which emphasizes reusing and repurposing rather than discarding, we propose modifying the lottery to promote thrift thusly: in every state lottery outlet, you would not only be able to buy lottery tickets, but also savings tickets. In this way, a comprehensive public apparatus devoted to encouraging everyone to become a bettor would, as a result of this one addition to its inventory, become simultaneously a comprehensive public apparatus devoted to encouraging everyone to become a saver.

Reform Usury Laws

A return to usury rate caps would restrict predatory lending practices by anti-thrift institutions and also help to reestablish a pro-thrift norm.

Keep Credit Card Companies off Campus

We as a society should consider banning the credit card industry's college campus marketing at freshman orientation, student unions, sports events, and other campus activities.

Establish National Opt-Out Savings Regulations

When an employer offers a savings program to employees, many employees never get around to taking the steps required to open the account. But some companies help employees circumvent this inertia by automatically enrolling employees in the program, while giving them the option to opt out. No one is forced to participate, but no one has to do any work to enroll, either. These so-called opt-out savings programs have been quite successful. Congress might consider requiring all employers offering these plans to provide them on an automatic enrollment (that is, on an opt-out, rather than an opt-in) basis.

Establish Matched Savings Accounts for Low-Income Adults

Each year, the federal government spends (through forgone tax revenue) about $110 billion on tax incentives to encourage people to put money in retirement savings accounts. Yet because these incentives come in the form of forgiven taxes, they disproportionately benefit wealthier Americans with higher tax rates. One idea for partially correcting this imbalance is to create nationwide a program of savings accounts in which deposits from low-income Americans, which would grow tax-free, would be partially matched or subsidized.

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Establish Matched Savings Accounts for Children

A national children's savings account program could allow parents, beginning during the year of the child’s birth, to deposit up to a specific amount into a savings account, which would grow tax-free and which could be used for the child’s post-secondary education or perhaps also for other specified pro-thrift purposes to aid the child. For children of low-income parents, contributions from the parents would be partially matched, or subsidized.

Establish More and Better School Savings Programs

Studies suggest that school savings programs are wise pro-thrift investments. The history of existing programs further suggests that the most effective ones teach children that "wise saving is good for you and good for your community" rather than simply promoting the idea that "saving will help you buy something nice that you want." Some of the most promising programs also teach students how to earn money by becoming small entrepreneurs. The best programs help students actually save money, rather than simply instruct them in financial literacy.

Create State Commissions on Anti-Thrift Institutions

Policymakers and legislators might consider establishing state-level blue-ribbon commissions to examine the current scope and practices of anti-thrift institutions, including payday lenders, rent-to-own stores, and check cashing businesses.

Create a U.S. Financial Products Safety Commission

Professor Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School has suggested the creation of a U.S. Financial Product Safety Commission, roughly on the model of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. She argues that consumers today cannot independently rate the safety of financial products—just as they cannot with consumer products—and that therefore this new agency should set minimum safety standards, establish customer disclosure rules, and require modifications of excessively dangerous products.

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Help Banks Reach the Unbanked

Professor John Caskey of Swarthmore College has proposed that banks create special branches called “outlets” that would cater to the needs of lower-income communities by essentially mimicking the format of cash cashing centers: They would be small; conveniently located; and would cash checks, provide money-orders, and offer small loans. However, they would also offer deposit accounts, contractual savings accounts, and, for those who wanted them, traditional bank products.

Question "More Consumer Spending" as a Main Solution to Economic Problems

Whether it is a national security crisis or worrisome economic news, our leaders in recent years seem increasingly determined to insist, as a response to such challenges, on the importance of high and continued consumer spending. It is time to balance this message of more spending with the message of more saving and more wealth building.

You can find more fully developed treatments of these ideas in the full report which is available at www.newthrift.org.

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