there’s lots you can do be said for social arrangements under which baseline ordinary living doesn’t require personal savings. nevertheless, even if, people do want to arrange the timing of their consumption in ways that deviate from their timing of income. 1/

it might well be that “real” credit-risk-free interest rates should be zero or negative much of the time. sometimes, because of a big social project (think war bonds, but for something good), we may wish to pay up a bit for people willing to defer consumption. 2/

but “paying up a bit” would look nothing like the returns index funds “investors” have enjoyed. /fin