Friday, May 1, 2020

Financial literacy classes are delusional & blame poor people for being poor

An appropriate message for May Day:

...financial literacy standards frame economic well-being primarily as a personal practice, overlooking the various mechanisms that generate inequalities. They ignore the role of Wall Street, the lack of government financial regulation, and a financial system in which crises are par for the course...

Financial literacy is silent about the need for decent working conditions, unemployment insurance, paid leave, a living wage. It also leaves unmentioned the subject of rising economic inequality marked by income volatility and unaffordable housing. Mounting student loan bills are presented as a problem of financial smarts, not skyrocketing college tuition. Instead, a financial literacy narrative endures which maintains that people are in debt because they spend their money on luxuries like lattes and avocado toast.

The Financial Literacy Delusion: We need honest narratives about the distribution of wealth. Amazing blog from Agata Soroko, PhD candidate and part-time professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa.

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