The need for Financial Education among populations is not new. Former US Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan identified it, and Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump now argue that it is critical to the future success of nations. The message seems to be going unnoticed in places where government decisions are made. The continued failure to ignore the message will have an impact for two key reasons.
Reason One: The Impact of Reduced Spending Power
Within days of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, President Bush called on the American people to come out and keep spending to stimulate the American economy. His message was twofold. First, keep spending to stimulate the US economy and, by virtue of its size, create a ripple effect on the global economy. The global economy is like a shark: it has to keep moving to survive, and to do so it needs to feed on money. However, given the current level of financial education, disposable income is something of a finite resource and we are reaching the high end of how elastic it can be.
Personal spending is done through existing resources, that is, salary or through credit. However, both are not unlimited. In fact, for many, the salary option has dried up. Many people now use credit cards and other sources of credit to maintain their spending pattern. Worse yet, signs show that people are now so overstretched that they require more credit just to meet existing credit payments. Some have even moved beyond this extreme stage and we are beginning to see an increase in personal insolvency.
Eventually, these people’s ability to spend will be severely limited, and as such, they will no longer be able to feed the endless appetite of the economy. Without a steady flow of money, at best there will be a slowdown. The possibility of a recession in an economy is also a very real possibility along with its knock-on effects.
Reason two Social spending and its upward spiral
Welfare spending is on an upward spiral. As Robert Kiyosaki and Donald Trump point out in their book Why We Want You to Be Rich, it has been calculated that the American welfare system is beginning to run up debts to the American people that all the stock and bond markets in the world could not pay if they were collected. They also note that this could very well get worse as the Baby Boomer generation begins to retire, putting a huge strain on an already overstretched resource.
The problem has always been known, but governments have pushed it forward like a time bomb, all hoping it won’t explode on their watch. Unfortunately, the ticking seems to be speeding up, indicating that we are closer than ever to setting off this bombshell.
Is there an answer? If there is, it is certainly not to repeat the same actions. In addition, financial education must have a greater importance in the minds of nations. People need to know how to think more effectively about how they manage their money. One of the best ways to start this process is to start with the youth. The way to do this is to expose them to financial education at the only institution where they spend their formative years: school. However, this will require projects and plans to introduce financial education to be promoted at this time. Not tomorrow, not sometime in the future. Today.
The kind of political will that will be needed to achieve this means that the issue will have to be on the to-do list of every man and woman who considers themselves to have some political influence. You’ll need to be on the talking points of every major politician to create the kind of ripple that makes things happen.
While this may seem like an important task, politicians respond to two key things that could help get it on the agenda. The first is an overwhelming demand for action by the people who vote for them. When these people make enough noise and feel that their position is threatened, politicians respond. The second is when they understand that there is something in it for them, recognition as critical to their achievement and can create a legacy of their time in office, they respond. Once they understand what’s in it for them, this might be easier.
Well, what about for the political figures of our time?
If financial literacy is put into schools, we potentially have the ability to produce the first financially literate generation. The resulting impact could be more beneficial to individuals and entire social groups than scores of laws and social programs have ever achieved. Combining word and number literacy provides the foundation on which socially disadvantaged groups and individuals can lift themselves out of the various types of poverty in which they find themselves.
With such knowledge, they reduce their dependence on others, on society, and on their government. The results of this may appeal to those on both sides of the political divide. Finally, a bipartisan initiative that can be a force for good whatever your politics.
If political figures are still wondering what’s in it for them, this is it. Many speak of the need to do something worthwhile and leave a legacy for their time in public service. Many get sidetracked and bogged down when they oppose the cause they find so valuable throughout their political careers. This takes away the willpower to do it and they become a shadow of the person they set out to be in public service. By embracing this cause that can find support on both sides, suddenly there is an opportunity to create a political legacy that can redefine the future not just of individuals and social groups, but of entire nations.
There is a brighter future with the action of our politicians and public servants. They just need to rewrite their to-do list so that financial education is on top.
