He who buys what he does not need steals from himself.

I like that.

What is interesting is that we are heavily influenced to consume, yet it is much, much harder to influence us to save.

I think this might be because the "rush" comes from the things we buy, not the saving itself. It's like delayed conditioning so it's not as effective as other forms of association.

$55,000 per capita

There is definitely a skew here. I suspect the average salary isn't even that high.