Ask HN: Why isn’t finance a part of the core curriculum at schools?

Completely disagree. Even $100/mo invested into an index fund using a Roth IRA in your 20s will have a huge positive return on your quality of life later on. Millions of workers can afford this and don't do it because they haven't been taught/shown the value.

Finance doesn't create value, most of the times actually destroys it. Moreover, you're looking at this with a clearly US-centric perspective, in many other countries we don't need to know about retirement schemes, school loans and health insurance policies (you seem to have forgotten that insurance IS finance, but this might be just another example of the reason why this is hairy).

So, if tomorrow all of this changes, you'll have millions of people with really useless knowledge. And who changes these things? Politics. This is politics. Won't it be better that people learn about politics, philosophy and history so that they have the tools they need to actually understand and change the world around them?

that's a great question!

I'll try to answer as a parent in CA/US, where I spend most of my time (for some other countries, they don't actually have such a huge looming financial sector, other countries seem to go for the "focus on the fundamentals and the rest will follow" approach)

Elementary to middle school in CA seems to be about having fun and getting a sticker, many times I heard "these grades don't count anyway". Kids learn stuff that's "fun" and read books that are "fun", that's about it - except maybe a couple of semi-serious classes in the later grades. Even if they did teach finance, due to young age it probably wouldn't even register.

High school seems to be a mad dash for college-like credits and classes. If it doesn't serve either (1) student's interests (e.g. sports), or (2) college requirements - core subjects or easy A's, or (3) the current district agenda (scrambling for test averages, or common core, or SAT or lack thereof, or whatever the hype of the year), it will get little attention. Finance doesn't really seem to fall into any of the above.

I'm curious what you mean by there not being enough time. Kids today spend more time in dedicated schooling (as opposed to apprenticeships or whatever) than kids of yesteryear and although the information density of everyday life has increased substantially, it's not like basic arithmetic has become more complex in the last couple thousand years.

We got taught about basic finance. It was poor: The teacher had a friend from a care dealership come in to teach us some things. I was 13.

But more importantly: What a wide swath of folks need is how to survive poverty. So many people never get to the point of even considering a CD or IRA. Most folks only really need the bank account for paying things. 401(k) simply because that's what is offered by the employer, and you have to get paid enough to really use it. Sometimes $5 today really is more important than $10 when you retire since it means food to make it to retirement. MSA is similar: You need the extra money. No point in a MSA if you can't afford insurance anyway.

If you can't teach how to afford poverty, the rest is useless and completely tone deaf.

Likewise, most folks aren't going to open a business and many won't invest in markets.

Realistically, what we need are online resources in plain, simple english that explains these things and/or classes that are mandatory for folks starting businesses. The younger the person, the more likely the person is to be pretty good at consuming information on the internet. Just make sure folks know where to go to get good information.