Wealth, of course, is obtained by two processes: (1) acquiring it and (2) by forgoing current consumption, holding on to it. Cultures differ in their values toward both of these processes. For example, the United States is more consumption-oriented than Western European countries. Americans more often take advantage of present opportunities to earn income by moonlighting or by having dual-career households. A higher percentage of American wives hold jobs than to European wives. Germans are more critical of wives' employment than people in any other large Western country. On the other hand, Americans are not so strongly oriented as are the Germans to holding on to what they have earned. Americans use installment debt freely, whereas its use in Germany is very low. The German word for debt, Schuld, is the same as the word for guilt.
Not only are the Germans more debt-adverse than other countries, but they also have managed to retain a higher quality of life for females: while German women are more likely than women in other countries to have a university education, they are less likely to hold job, leaving them free to enrich family life, pursue the arts and sports, and engage in politics. As a consequence, German children have a higher literacy rate, having spent more time during the first five years of life in the presence of their mothers.
