20 Comments
Saving in a bank - yes. The bank invests the money further, which helps stimulate production and economic growth. Saving cash or precious commodities physically at your place - no. You're just taking money and assets away from the market, away from people who could use them.
Doesn't it help the economy more to spend your money on goods than put it in a bank?
No, not really. The bank makes its money from investing the money people put in. Part of the investment returns are what you may see as interest - small fractions of the sum you put in being added to the balance. And since the bank does want to make money, it invests into projects with large potential to grow, and growing companies leads to growing production and trade, which in turn leads to a growing economy.
Usually, yes, if you mean "gross domestic product". The only way I can make sense out of the statement is if it means my personal balance sheet. I believe "οικο" derives from the ancient Greek word for "home". So if I can save on buying a loaf of bread, it's good for home economics.
Counterpoint (since it's December): http://timharford.com/2015/12/in-praise-of-scrooge/
Great selection for this time of year and the theme of this sentence. Thanks Phil, I haven't read it all but it looks really interesting and shows a new dimension to Scrooge. We might have something to learn from him.
A bit of a quandary, it should be as Phil said " savings help the economy" not "savings helps the economy", and "Saving helps the economy" which is the literal translation does not have the same meaning.
The English sentence seems rather strange. [EDIT: This comment was about the original translation Saving help the economy.]
Yes, I think so too. "αποταμίευση" means making deposits in the bank. I've changed it to "saving money" but don't think it's good enough please give some feedback.
My comment was not meant to be about style or a better/best translation, but just about the grammar of Saving help the economy. I had already reported it twice, and finally decided to use a comment, hoping that you might see it.
As for the translation of αποταμίευση etc, other people have commented on similar sentences before. One that comes to mind is the comment thread of the sentence The savings are interesting/Η αποταμίευση είναι ενδιαφέρουσα where the words κατάθεση and deposit are brought up. Anyway, I'm no expert in Greek or English, but it seems to me that your present translation Saving money helps the economy is probably as good as it gets. [My own favorite is of course Hoarding money helps the economy, but I realize that it's not a very precise translation. :-D]
Εἰλικρινῶς ἡ ἀκριβέστερη μετάφραση τοῦ νὰ «ἀποταμιεύσῳ» εἶναι μήπως "to horde". Τὸ «ταμεῖον» λέγεται λαϊκὰ ἀλλιῶς ὡς καὶ ὁ θησαυρός.
Sorry, out of curiosity what kind of Greek is this? It doesn't have enough archaic forms for me to think it might be ancient. Is this Katharevousa?
I'm assuming it's just using the older accent system. The grammar book I've been using uses all those accents, eliminated in 1982. See Wikipedia Greek diacritics Thank goodness we don't need to use them!
