In support of my post on delaying repayment of student loans (emphasis mine):

Myth # 5: "Excess consumption is a feature of the free-market capitalist system."
False. Excess consumption is mostly caused by central bank's artificially low interest rates, which promote lower savings and higher consumption than would naturally occur. Currently, the real interest rates of savings accounts are negative. Thus it makes no economic sense to save. Since these same policies cause price increases, it makes sense to consume as much as you can immediately, before prices rise. Therefore we see that excess consumption is being caused by government policies and not by the capitalist free-market system.