It's easy to blame Wall Street for all our financial woes. But what did they really do? They violated trust. People trusted those businesses to 'do the right thing' ... people trusted them so much that they gave up a lot of control and power to them and just let them (big financial institutions) take care of things.
There is another part of the problem. There are a heck of a lot of people who simply do not understand the basic of our financial systems. Back in the '60's I had to take Economics and Civics as part of my high school curriculum. It was not my favorite subject, but I still use some of the things I learned there on a routine basis. Such things as dealing with a budget, comparison shopping, balancing a checkbook have become a part of daily living.
Now days, the financial system has become much more complicated. A 'simple' agreement for a credit card has become some convoluted and filled with legalese that many people do not understand everything that they are committing themselves to as partners in an agreement, OR that to which the bank can be held accountable, OR what the citizen's basic rights are within that agreement.
IF more of the customers of those institutions had had a clearer understanding, would they have made different choices? My guess is that they would have. With greed at the top of the pyramid and lack of knowledge at the bottom, the current collapsing structure is certainly understandable.
Now, is the State of Virginia about to complicate that problem further?
HB 196 Economics education and financial literacy: repeals requirement for instruction in certain schools is a bill that will remove economics education and financial literacy instruction in middle and high schools.
This bill effectively repeals §
22.1-200.03 of the Code of Virginia which states: § 22.1-200.03. Economics education and financial literacy required in middle
and high school grades; Board of Education to establish objectives for
economic education and financial literacy; banking-at-school programs.(Use the link to see the full text).
Now this is suppose to make sense? We are in a financial crisis and rather than working to improve the education of individuals to better manage their personal/business finances, the State would get rid of what we have? What should be happening is that we should be expanding that program not getting rid of it. We need to be adding to the knowledge that people have so that they can make better decisions, not weakening their resources!!!
I find myself wondering just who this bill is suppose to be helping. I certainly do not see it helping citizens. Now, all those big financial institutions should be loving this. The less people know, the easier it is to manipulate them. Looks like it is time for me to start doing some phone calling and letter writing.
Along with your local Delegate, some of those to contact would be members of the
Sub-Committee: #1 Standards of Quality (I put in the link to make contact information easier to find:) where the bill is currently on schedule. Their next meeting is 1/26/10 at 7:30 AM in Meeing Room 4 West.