"Let them eat cake" is the of the French phrase "Qu'ils mangent de la brioche", spoken by "a great princess" upon learning that the peasants had no bread. Since brioche was made from dough enriched with butter and eggs, and those ingredients were even more scarce and more costly than dough, making brioche even more out of the reach of the peasants than bread, the quote would reflect the princess's obliviousness as to the condition of the people.
The version I heard was that the Queen Marie Antoinette was even more callous. "Cake" was the burnt leftovers remaining in the oven after baking bread.
But back to the OP's original point, other countries do a much better job saving than Americans, even people who are much more poor. Poor Chinese save twice what poor Americans do.
And I didn't all have money, but I managed to keep a couple hundred both at home in cash and also in the credit union for emergencies.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
