4 ms·

Financial education - spending less, saving up, and investing - is common sense but maybe needs to be taught in school. Or maybe the new sovereign wealth fund w

Financial education - spending less, saving up, and investing - is common sense but maybe needs to be taught in school. Or maybe the new sovereign wealth fund will indirectly reduce this inequality without needing every individual to take action. Not sure what other options there are.

thomasingalls 2y ago
TAX. THE. RICH. Oh right.
- eporomaa 2y ago
  Or stop taxing the poor? I.e. stop deflating the currency.
  - EndShell 2y ago
    A lot of people don't realise that monetary inflation is a tax on everybody and affect the poorest the most.
hagbarth 2y ago
Or maybe, you know, the structure of the system concentrates wealth.
47282847 2y ago
How many poor people do you know? I mean, personally? I don’t know anyone where your advice would not be received as condescending and detached from reality.
paganel 2y ago
How can one “financially educate” himself out of the prices doubling in a matter of a few years? And that’s until we get to basic stuff like the cost of housing. Which is to say that neo-liberal patches like “you’re poor because you’re financially illiterate!” need to go, a real structural reform must be put in place in most of the Western world.
- ImHereToVote 2y ago
  [flagged]
- blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
  > How can one “financially educate” himself out of the prices doubling in a matter of a few years? By investing. Even with inflation adjustment historical market return is 6%.
arvinsim 2y ago
Financial education is useless if you don't have capital. Most poor people are just earning enough to live day by day. Getting financial literacy would help little.
- blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
  I think the importance of financial education is pretty underestimated. But just to illustrate, investing $10 a month into an index fund would mean something like $100K saved up for retirement. Even if you’re poor, it is usually possible to find that $10.
  - RangerScience 2y ago
    AFAIK, the issue isn't finding that $10/mo; although I'd still definitely agree that financial education is underestimated; I'd certainly love to have had a lot more! But, AFAIK - The issue is when something goes wrong, and you have to choose between the gas bill and mom's meds. And then you need to choose between saving that $10/mo for retirement, or for emergencies; or taking what's been saved out of the retirement fund (if that's even possible) because, well, an emergency. Had a colleague have to sell some (most?) of their BTC at $100 to make some student loan payments. As an example.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - cycomanic 2y ago
    On the other hand, it has been shown that financial education has very little effect on people living in poverty, but you know what has a big effect? Money, giving poor people money (not even large amounts) has the biggest and longest lasting effect on getting peoe out of poverty. The notion that poverty is a character flaw and that poor people just need to be better with their money, is just propaganda so that it's more palable to cut welfare programs. To see how ridiculous it is, you just have to think about the other ned of the spectrum, the most financially irresponsible people one can observe are typically some rich kids, does it have any influence on their financial/economic future?
  - 2y ago
KronisLV 2y ago
> spending less, saving up, and investing On a personal level, sure, that's responsible (for whoever can actually afford to do that), but if everyone is living frugally and don't spend that much money at all, doesn't that have pretty horrible effects on the numerous businesses that actually need consumers?
wiseowise 2y ago
“Guhuh just fununcially aducate urself” Do they teach in school how to invest when you can barely afford food and have no disposable income? Must be easy to talk shit when sitting on your cushy white collar job. Stop simping for billionaires, it’s pathetic.
- blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
  If you read the article you would see that every bracket has some disposable income. The middle 60% (which isn’t the top 10% from the headline) spends more than $1000 a year on vacation. Cut that in half and invest $500 a year into the market and you would have a few hundred thousand for retirement (way more than typical retirement savings). Also, in response to these… > “Guhuh just fununcially aducate urself” > Must be easy to talk shit when sitting on your cushy white collar job. > Stop simping for billionaires, it’s pathetic. …I suggest reading the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - wiseowise 2y ago
    > The middle 60% (which isn’t the top 10% from the headline) spends more than $1000 a year on vacation. Cut that in half and invest $500 a year into the market and you would have a few hundred thousand for retirement (way more than typical retirement savings). So middle 60% must slave away their whole life and save for retirement while 10% live their life to the fullest? $1000 isn’t even a spec on billionaire’s radar while for someone it represents a whole year of work to spend a day of rest from this dystopia.
cycomanic 2y ago
Interestingly, studies show that poor people often have much better financial planning (for the sole reason that they would often not eat otherwise) than richer people. The thing they lack is money.
wesapien 2y ago
Education alone will not stop the wealth inequality and deteriorating living standards.

thomasingalls 2y ago

TAX. THE. RICH. Oh right.

eporomaa 2y ago
Or stop taxing the poor? I.e. stop deflating the currency.
- EndShell 2y ago
  A lot of people don't realise that monetary inflation is a tax on everybody and affect the poorest the most.

hagbarth 2y ago

Or maybe, you know, the structure of the system concentrates wealth.

47282847 2y ago

How many poor people do you know? I mean, personally? I don’t know anyone where your advice would not be received as condescending and detached from reality.

paganel 2y ago

How can one “financially educate” himself out of the prices doubling in a matter of a few years? And that’s until we get to basic stuff like the cost of housing. Which is to say that neo-liberal patches like “you’re poor because you’re financially illiterate!” need to go, a real structural reform must be put in place in most of the Western world.

ImHereToVote 2y ago
[flagged]
blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
> How can one “financially educate” himself out of the prices doubling in a matter of a few years? By investing. Even with inflation adjustment historical market return is 6%.

arvinsim 2y ago

Financial education is useless if you don't have capital. Most poor people are just earning enough to live day by day. Getting financial literacy would help little.

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
I think the importance of financial education is pretty underestimated. But just to illustrate, investing $10 a month into an index fund would mean something like $100K saved up for retirement. Even if you’re poor, it is usually possible to find that $10.
- RangerScience 2y ago
  AFAIK, the issue isn't finding that $10/mo; although I'd still definitely agree that financial education is underestimated; I'd certainly love to have had a lot more! But, AFAIK - The issue is when something goes wrong, and you have to choose between the gas bill and mom's meds. And then you need to choose between saving that $10/mo for retirement, or for emergencies; or taking what's been saved out of the retirement fund (if that's even possible) because, well, an emergency. Had a colleague have to sell some (most?) of their BTC at $100 to make some student loan payments. As an example.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- cycomanic 2y ago
  On the other hand, it has been shown that financial education has very little effect on people living in poverty, but you know what has a big effect? Money, giving poor people money (not even large amounts) has the biggest and longest lasting effect on getting peoe out of poverty. The notion that poverty is a character flaw and that poor people just need to be better with their money, is just propaganda so that it's more palable to cut welfare programs. To see how ridiculous it is, you just have to think about the other ned of the spectrum, the most financially irresponsible people one can observe are typically some rich kids, does it have any influence on their financial/economic future?
- 2y ago

KronisLV 2y ago

> spending less, saving up, and investing On a personal level, sure, that's responsible (for whoever can actually afford to do that), but if everyone is living frugally and don't spend that much money at all, doesn't that have pretty horrible effects on the numerous businesses that actually need consumers?

wiseowise 2y ago

“Guhuh just fununcially aducate urself” Do they teach in school how to invest when you can barely afford food and have no disposable income? Must be easy to talk shit when sitting on your cushy white collar job. Stop simping for billionaires, it’s pathetic.

blackeyeblitzar 2y ago
If you read the article you would see that every bracket has some disposable income. The middle 60% (which isn’t the top 10% from the headline) spends more than $1000 a year on vacation. Cut that in half and invest $500 a year into the market and you would have a few hundred thousand for retirement (way more than typical retirement savings). Also, in response to these… > “Guhuh just fununcially aducate urself” > Must be easy to talk shit when sitting on your cushy white collar job. > Stop simping for billionaires, it’s pathetic. …I suggest reading the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- wiseowise 2y ago
  > The middle 60% (which isn’t the top 10% from the headline) spends more than $1000 a year on vacation. Cut that in half and invest $500 a year into the market and you would have a few hundred thousand for retirement (way more than typical retirement savings). So middle 60% must slave away their whole life and save for retirement while 10% live their life to the fullest? $1000 isn’t even a spec on billionaire’s radar while for someone it represents a whole year of work to spend a day of rest from this dystopia.

cycomanic 2y ago

Interestingly, studies show that poor people often have much better financial planning (for the sole reason that they would often not eat otherwise) than richer people. The thing they lack is money.

wesapien 2y ago

Education alone will not stop the wealth inequality and deteriorating living standards.