Financial illiteracy among Americans, and beyond...
in Economy ·
Chris Myers said:Starting this new thread based on some posts I saw in other PDFs. If there’s already an existing one and I missed it, please merge them.
I hear all the time that Americans are a financially illiterate nation. People claim it's because of everything from a failing school system to leftovers from the old regime, or just plain laziness when it comes to learning, plus a lack of decent financial education available...
What's your take? How do we fix this mess?
Please share any examples from your own circles that either support or debunk this idea...
I once asked a friend what his Exxon rate was on a 30-year mortgage; he just replied, "The interest is 3.xx%."
People clearly don't grasp the distinction between an annuity and a simple interest rate.
I told another buddy that $10 a month for a debit card and online banking was a massive rip-off, and he basically told me I had no idea how little $10 actually is.
Then there's someone I know who has spent years just barely scraping by, perpetually stuck in the red with loans or credit balances in the $15k-$20k range.
It seems to me that a significant portion of the population lacks even the most elementary financial literacy—which, frankly, makes it easier to understand why the US is in the position it’s in.