3 ms·

I don't think its intentional (the overlords?) but it is an unjustifiable gap for any society that considers itself democratic. Its not just the broad unwashed

I don't think its intentional (the overlords?) but it is an unjustifiable gap for any society that considers itself democratic. Its not just the broad unwashed masses. Essentially outside a tiny number of central banking economists the rest of the world has still "flat Earth" level understanding of how monetary systems work, the role of private banks and, crucially, what alternatives there might be and pros/cons. Efforts for financial literacy, to the extend they exist, are inadequate and incomplete, essentially manuals for smoothing financial product consumption, not background knowledge on how and why these systems are setup. Its a fixable gap. Compared to the amount of complexity of material people are exposed to at different school levels, this stuff is really not that difficult.

danielmarkbruce 4y ago
People have a flat earth understanding of many topics because they are complex and take a lot of work to understand. It would be nice if everyone understood the basics of human biology and health care - but it's incredibly complex. I'm a health care flat earther.... I might always be. Understanding the legal system would likely be more helpful to most than the financial system. But again, takes lot of work to get there. For most people, this stuff doesn't matter.
- college_physics 4y ago
  Still, for many complex topics the standard curriculum would at least try: there is plenty of biology, chemistry, physics and math on offer. While for many people unfortunately this material flies over their head (a different topic), there is a reasonable fraction that gets comfortable and can contribute to the public debate when needed (think eg vaccines) The contrast with money is that it affects literaly everybody and everyday, but far fewer people have a grasp of the basics. btw, this became very obvious with the whole cryptocurrency phenomenon which for the first time exposed this gap (it also prompted some central banks to start explaining) The legal angle is very important too. People have maybe an intuitive understanding of rights and obligations linked to contracts, but understanding legal entities and the role of corporations is very limited. Ultimately the objective is not to make everybody an expert on these specialized domains, but have enough informed citizens so that they participate in debates, influence policy decisions etc instead of being at the mercy of insiders
  - danielmarkbruce 4y ago
    Not trying to be argumentative, but, what would the result be? Ie, let's say citizens were informed enough on the banking/financial system - what would be different?

danielmarkbruce 4y ago

People have a flat earth understanding of many topics because they are complex and take a lot of work to understand. It would be nice if everyone understood the basics of human biology and health care - but it's incredibly complex. I'm a health care flat earther.... I might always be. Understanding the legal system would likely be more helpful to most than the financial system. But again, takes lot of work to get there. For most people, this stuff doesn't matter.

college_physics 4y ago
Still, for many complex topics the standard curriculum would at least try: there is plenty of biology, chemistry, physics and math on offer. While for many people unfortunately this material flies over their head (a different topic), there is a reasonable fraction that gets comfortable and can contribute to the public debate when needed (think eg vaccines) The contrast with money is that it affects literaly everybody and everyday, but far fewer people have a grasp of the basics. btw, this became very obvious with the whole cryptocurrency phenomenon which for the first time exposed this gap (it also prompted some central banks to start explaining) The legal angle is very important too. People have maybe an intuitive understanding of rights and obligations linked to contracts, but understanding legal entities and the role of corporations is very limited. Ultimately the objective is not to make everybody an expert on these specialized domains, but have enough informed citizens so that they participate in debates, influence policy decisions etc instead of being at the mercy of insiders
- danielmarkbruce 4y ago
  Not trying to be argumentative, but, what would the result be? Ie, let's say citizens were informed enough on the banking/financial system - what would be different?