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'Striking weaknesses' in adult financial skills

bbc.com

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Re: 'Striking weaknesses' in adult financial skills

#61

Post by pjc50 »

tysonzni wrote: post #16
kartan wrote: post #5

If you want capitalism to work, you need some kind of "homo economicus" that is able to look for their own selfinterest. If what you have is companies powered by complex financial systems and artificial intelligence help while consumers are not able to get a discount right, you are going to end with all money in one side of the table with the other empty handed. This is another reason to improve our education systems…

what you have is companies powered by complex financial systems and artificial intelligence help while consumers are not able to get a discount right Yeah agreed. Perhaps products (chatbots, voice?) that simply tell people what to do can partially solve for this. In many cases however, people have self-interests based on vastly different values (think relationship or hobby), and their instincts are good enough at app…

"Alexa thinks you should apply for a personal loan through Amazon Finance"

Yeah, no conflict of interest there

Re: 'Striking weaknesses' in adult financial skills

#62

Post by amichal »

At a local Starbucks the other day the person working the register insisted the quarter(25c) I gave him was nickle(5c). Later when giving me 16c in change he gave me a quarter and a penny. At McDonalds the next day I was refunded for a 4.67 order that took too long with 5.50 cents. My experience matches the article. On a more serious note: We design software for use by finance experts. After user testing we’ve had to:

- remove error bars from charts because folks didn’t know what they were and found the concept confusing

- remove histograms (users didn’t know what they represented).

- remove “percentile” after no one could agree if 99th perctile was higher or lower then 1st

- eventually change rankings from “3rd” to “3rd highest score out of NN respondents”

Re: 'Striking weaknesses' in adult financial skills

#63

Post by pjc50 »

golergka wrote: post #29
ZeroGravitas wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The theoretical support for why capitalism is a good system, assumes people aren't stupid and only make trades and decisions that are rational and good for them though. Arguing that you're going to take advantage of the weak, the old, the distracted, the powerless and the terrified may be a refreshingly open take on capitalism, but it's not what it's sold on.

> Arguing that you're going to take advantage of the weak, the old, the distracted, the powerless and the terrified may be a refreshingly open take on capitalism, but it's not what it's sold on. The fact that your strength, youth, concentration and wit will give you an advantage over others is exactly why capitalism is fair and awesome.

"Age and treachery will always triumph over youth and skill"

-- ancient proverb, attribution uncertain

Re: 'Striking weaknesses' in adult financial skills

#64

Post by maxerickson »

kartan wrote: post #5

If you want capitalism to work, you need some kind of "homo economicus" that is able to look for their own selfinterest. If what you have is companies powered by complex financial systems and artificial intelligence help while consumers are not able to get a discount right, you are going to end with all money in one side of the table with the other empty handed. This is another reason to improve our education systems…

Don't corporations more or less fill the role of homo economicus?

I mean, that's not necessarily great for homo sapiens, but there you go.

Re: 'Striking weaknesses' in adult financial skills

#66

Post by throwawayts »

walshemj wrote: post #51
baybal2 wrote: post #22

Basic arithmetics is not the only deficient field in UK secondary school math curriculum. Higher tier domains like statistics, calculus, trigonometry, geometry, vectors, math analysis are deficient too.

STEM qualifications aren't considered very highly in the UK

The Times Higher Education rankings puts 3 UK universities in the top 10 worldwide for physical sciences and for engineering.

Or do you just mean they aren't considered attractive careers to students and children?

Re: 'Striking weaknesses' in adult financial skills

#67

Post by zyberzero »

_ah wrote: post #11
Kuiper wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially when you consider that most supermarket labels will also include the "price per unit weight" or "price per unit volume" on the shelf with a smaller font, it becomes trivially easy to compare which bottle of soap is going to get you the most for your money. Or maybe you neglect to do this (simply opting for the container that looks the most appealing rather than optimizing for the amount of liquid per dolla…

I've started noticing some sneaky math in my local supermarket. When comparing two items, both list the unit price, but they list the price in different units. Example: A 1.4-lb package lists the price per oz, while the 0.8-lb package lists the price per lb. In every case, the intent seems too be an attempt to induce math errors and cause someone to accidentally purchase the package with the higher true unit price.

I've noticed this as well here in Sweden. Take for example bacon - product A is listed in terms of price/slice while the other is listed as price/weight. It's ridiculous.

Re: 'Striking weaknesses' in adult financial skills

#68

Post by undreren »

pjc50 wrote: post #61
tysonzni wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what you have is companies powered by complex financial systems and artificial intelligence help while consumers are not able to get a discount right Yeah agreed. Perhaps products (chatbots, voice?) that simply tell people what to do can partially solve for this. In many cases however, people have self-interests based on vastly different values (think relationship or hobby), and their instincts are good enough at app…

"Alexa thinks you should apply for a personal loan through Amazon Finance" Yeah, no conflict of interest there

Capitalism is great for the many when most business are small and there's plenty of competition.

Capitalism is great for the few in more or less all other scenarios.

We live in one of the others, I'm afraid.

Re: 'Striking weaknesses' in adult financial skills

#69

Post by poster123 »

One argument against redistribution is that one is taking money from high-IQ, more responsible people who know how to manage money on average and giving it to low-IQ, less responsible people who don't know how to manage money.

This needs to be balanced against the primary argument for redistribution, that someone earning $30K/year can use an extra $1K more than someone earning $300K/year wil l miss it.

Re: 'Striking weaknesses' in adult financial skills

#70

Post by tonylemesmer »

_ah wrote: post #11
Kuiper wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially when you consider that most supermarket labels will also include the "price per unit weight" or "price per unit volume" on the shelf with a smaller font, it becomes trivially easy to compare which bottle of soap is going to get you the most for your money. Or maybe you neglect to do this (simply opting for the container that looks the most appealing rather than optimizing for the amount of liquid per dolla…

I've started noticing some sneaky math in my local supermarket. When comparing two items, both list the unit price, but they list the price in different units. Example: A 1.4-lb package lists the price per oz, while the 0.8-lb package lists the price per lb. In every case, the intent seems too be an attempt to induce math errors and cause someone to accidentally purchase the package with the higher true unit price.

same in the UK, some items priced per kg and others per 100g - not insurmountable but just another slight hump in the road to easy comparison when you're stood there.
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