But other countries have the same sort of culture and lack our level of credit card debt. Could it be that the field is tilted -- e.g. wages are simply at a level that does not allow the average person to save much even if they try,...
Most other countries have considerably lower wages (PPP-adjusted, not nominal) than we do.
If an average American reduced his consumption to the same level as a profligate Swede of average income (i.e., one who spends his entire paycheck every month), he would be saving about $15k/year.
The average American is a mirage. Replace that by the median American, and it's immediately down to $7k. Then notice that this "excludes most non-cash income(e.g., like employer contributions to social insurances, or the value of government provided health care and education)" and we can argue whether, after paying for health insurance and retirement/kids college savings, the median American really is better off.
This attempts to include the value of assorted government benefits (health care, education, etc), ignores deadweight losses (e.g., $1 in govt costs providing only $0.90 in benefits), and ignores the value of employer provided insurance (all of which favor Sweden).
Americans are still considerably richer (though the bottom of Sweden is better off than the bottom of the US). The gap gets even bigger if you restrict the comparison to Americans of Swedish descent.
Most other countries have considerably lower wages (PPP-adjusted, not nominal) than we do.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_household_...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_average_wa...
If an average American reduced his consumption to the same level as a profligate Swede of average income (i.e., one who spends his entire paycheck every month), he would be saving about $15k/year.