Moral of Downturn Story: Piggies Must Be Fed

¿ Goods and services that didn't exist a few decades ago -- such as high-definition televisions, high-speed Internet and cable or satellite subscriptions -- have become commonplace consumer items.

¿ The costs of many of the anchors of a middle-class lifestyle -- not just housing, but medical care and a college education -- have increased more sharply than inflation.

¿ With their rising expenses, middle-income Americans have taken on more debt, often borrowing against homes that, until recently, had been rising rapidly in value.

I have no doubt that the recent rise in gasoline and food prices, higher home prices, slower wage growth and debt payments all hindered people's ability to save. But this savings slide has been going on for decades. The truth is when times were good, people who could save still didn't.

Now that times are bad, families are worried, according to Pew's survey released in April.

Slightly more than half of middle-class respondents said they've had to reduce their spending in the past year and they expect to have to continue these cutbacks in the year ahead. A quarter of the people in this same group said they expected to have trouble paying their bills. And about a quarter of the middle class who are employed worried they could lose their jobs.

How much are people saving when they do put money away?

On average, as a country we are saving less than 1 percent of our incomes.

Some experts like to point out that the savings rate figure doesn't tell the whole story and that Americans aren't the spendthrifts that the statistics seem to show.