There goes civilisation...

no it isn't greed, it's attempting to save and offset inflation over thirty to forty years so you can build a realistic nestegg so that your annuity can pay your gasbills in the winter when you're eighty years old.

come on cg5154, even I know this shit and I'm not even hip to money matters.

Target inflation in the UK is 2% (only recently has in gone above that, it's currently 4.7%), and there are loads of savings accounts that pay over 5% interest (4% after tax), and loads of ISAs that pay 6% tax-free. I'd say the interest more than covers inflation.