Tucking It Away

Arguing for the kind of tax rebate plan that the House Ways and Means Committee favors—a plan giving the bulk of the benefits to lower income families and individuals—Senator Charles Percy said that such low income recipients “will pour it [the money] back into the spending stream, not just tuck it away.” Fascinating: “not just tuck it away.” That is a revealing choice of words.

It is true that lower income people are especially apt to spend an especially large chunk of any rebate especially fast. But it also is true that what Mr. Percy calls “tucking away” money is, by another name, saving. Saving, by another name, is the product of thrift. Thrift used to be considered a virtue. Indeed, it used to be considered the private virtue from which public blessings flowed. But today, as Mr. Percy’s choice of words imply, and as the House Ways and Means Committee’s steeply progressive rebate plan implies, thrift—saving money, “tucking it away”—is considered subversive of prosperity, and harmful to recovery.

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George F. Will

George F. Will has been a columnist, beginning with National Review, since 1973.

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Arguing for the kind of tax rebate plan that the House Ways and Means Committee favors—a plan giving the bulk of the benefits to lower income families and individuals—Senator Charles Percy said that such low income recipients “will pour it [the money] back into the spending stream, not just tuck it away.” Fascinating: “not just tuck it away.” That is a revealing choice of words.

It is true that lower income people are especially apt to spend an especially large chunk of any rebate especially fast. But it also is true that what Mr. Percy calls “tucking away” money is, by another name, saving. Saving, by another name, is the product of thrift. Thrift used to be considered a virtue. Indeed, it used to be considered the private virtue from which public blessings flowed. But today, as Mr. Percy’s choice of words imply, and as the House Ways and Means Committee’s steeply progressive rebate plan implies, thrift—saving money, “tucking it away”—is considered subversive of prosperity, and harmful to recovery.