Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

221–230 of 262 posts

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

#221

Post by stjohnswarts »

HenryBemis wrote: post #48
op03 wrote: post #40

If you ever teach a group of kids you quickly learn that interests, personality types, needs come in a wide spectrum. Whats in the "core curriculum" and its effects are not predictable. For example, I had French classes for 4 years and can't speak, read or write it to save my life. The teacher wasn't bad and kept telling me, who knows maybe one day I'd move to France. As a kid, I thought the whole thing was ridiculou…

Dave Ramsey (not connected in any way - just like his message), can be a bit 'over the top' sometimes, but in his daily radio show you can listen some (financial mismanagement) horror stories. He has a "7 baby steps process" that I believe everyone should know (and adapt to his/her will/preferences/life setup). Yes is a fanatic christian, yes, he can be a bit tiring when he takes a religious tangent, but still, I fin…

Sorry you're getting downvoted. He is a bit hyperbolic, but his steps are extremely easy to understand and can help curb bad habits that a lot of Americans have. He is also a likeable person I think and that means more people will listen to him than better (perhaps) advice coming from college professors who wrote a book on the same subject but who are less charismatic. A lot of HN people will downvote you for being a "shill" or "I know someone better" but you are on point and don't let the downvotes be taken personally. It's a failure on the downvoter rather than you when you are on topic and relating pertinent information.

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

#222

Post by BurningFrog »

lostdog wrote: post #218
nickff wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Economist) Bryan Caplan is currently working on a book, and his research so far seems to agree with your points: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAaCpyuwRIw

Caplan is very right wing ("the homeless still smile!"). The talk was still okish, but the points of view come from one side and could use some balance. Blaming poverty on "impulsive sex" and leaving blameless the policies of limiting birth control and freedom of choice is a pretty myopic point of view.

Caplan is a libertarian.

You'll never see anything like his pro open borders book from the right wing:

https://www.amazon.com/Open-Borders-Science-Ethics-Immigrati...

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

#223

Post by cripblip »

GordonS wrote: post #157
schrodinger wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’d argue this could embedded into an existing math curriculum instead. Most people could use this more than an advanced algebra class.

Way back when I was at school, my biggest issue with maths classes was that I never saw the point - like, what would I ever actually do with logarithmic equations in real life? I'd always ask the maths teacher whenever we started a new subject, and even he had no idea . It was all just so theoretical - seemingly pointless. I found it much more interesting to study things with practical implications, and I also think…

+100 for this, I fought through bland math classes at university before using z transforms for antenna analysis in my rf course. Please please please start with the use case and then introduce the solution, for me problem, solution using tool x, theory of tool x is the way to go.

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

#224

Post by pnutjam »

leetcrew wrote: post #211
Broken_Hippo wrote: post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is pretending a world is perfect. If pregnancy were easy to prevent, folks would have done it well before modern times. But that simply isn't the case. It doesn't matter if they knew the rent was that high, and it isn't like folks can avoid this in all areas. Expecting a couple to never have sex is unreasonable and pregnancy cannot always be prevented. In some areas, access to abortion is abysmal, though in some…

okay, I concede there are some parts of the world where family planning is actually pretty difficult. but think about the chain of things that have to go wrong to have an unplanned child in most wealthy countries. you have to improperly use (or eschew entirely) the several forms of birth control available. you don't need insurance to buy condoms, and they are not particularly expensive. even if you can't afford to bu…

Maybe they were high earners who had any number of setbacks. There are plenty of ways anyone can stumble financially.

Most people also make financial mistakes. The people who had help, or enough slack to recover shouldn't look down on the ones who don't.

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

#225

Post by johnisgood »

kadonoishi wrote: post #180
asciimov wrote: post #160

Two things to consider. 1. The purpose of school: To produce a basic worker who wont question authority and to keep a large segment of the population out of trouble for a majority of the working day (babysitting). School hasn't really changed much since the late industrial revolution with the exception that child labor laws mean more kids stay in and complete school. 2. A typical high school student completes 25 year…

LIF101 Drugs LIF102 Sex LIF103 Money Get their attention with marijuana, first topic first course. Spend one day on the chemistry, then one day on effects including how to recognize people under the drug’s influence. Then do tobacco, alcohol, caffeine, sugar, same two-day format. Then move back up into pharmaceutical opiates, street opiates, then cocaine. First midterm exam is on the science of drugs as chemicals and…

https://global.oup.com/academic/product/addiction-and-choice... (Addiction and Choice: Rethinking the relationship) should be mandatory reading. Most people have absolutely no clue about addiction, or hold an outdated and wrong belief of it. I recommend it to everyone, from laymen to medical professionals.

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

#226

Post by throwmylifawy »

dragonwriter wrote: post #179
throwmylifawy wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate you for being open, vulnerable and expressing your ideas. However I am black and what you are saying does not sound correct to me. I know a lot of black people (including my family) who listen to Dave Ramsey and watch Fox News. Black people are in general pretty religiously conservative in the US. Personally I used to watch financial TV channels growing up like CNBC and listen to Clark Howard and Susie O…

> I personally think the financial problems (in general) with black people (aside from racism) in the US stems from two related things: the lack of a coherent family structure and lack of intergenerational wealth transfer. You say “aside from racism” and then point to two things directly attributable to racist policies.

Agreed.

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

#227

Post by rayhendricks »

mellosouls wrote: post #82
rayhendricks wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need more VTSAX and less english majors. Start saving young and income doesn't really matter if your trying to FIRE. Also healthy eating habits and information about birth control should be taught in addition to financial literacy and at the expense of the current curriculum, but it is not because politics (both left and right here).

I'd agree with most of that; my point is there are many years of education - investing a significant amount of that in knowledge about the complexities of financial markets is utterly irrelevant to most people's lives; Maths and English are far more important at a deeper level over a life lived than bloody stocks and shares.

How is knowledge of the markets utterly irrelevant to most people's lives?

Knowing the reasoning behind not trying to time the market will allow you to have the moral foritude to not sell your retirement fund when the market is freaking out, like it did this spring. That is much more valuable knowledge for most people then knowing higher math and English literature.

Another place that the education system is totally worthless is healthcare. Do the schools teach us to contact our insurance companies for interaction Id numbers to see if a provider is in network and then proce we contacted 6months later...hah no. Yet just this last week I had two different providers offices try and schedule me for an appointment costing $160-$200 that subsequently my insurance would not pay for. However the in-network rate is $10. Yes this is a mess but even though it is a mess education is instead trying to teach a classical liberal arts education which most people neither want nor need.

We need educational reform in this country and significant cuts to the educational system could be exactly what is needed as a wake-up call.

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

#228

Post by stjohnswarts »

Lammy wrote: post #4

From a USA perspective? Universal financial education might make people realize that our explicit racial segregation became implicit economic segregation after the civil rights laws of the 1960s. California isn't expensive by accident :/

Not everything has to be about race. Why not allow students to you know, learn some money/finance basics without painting it as a new attempt to be racist by the system?

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

#229

Post by tcbasche »

vasco wrote: post #49
tcbasche wrote: post #2

I would argue that most people in life will never even go near the stock market let alone be expected to learn all those different bits and pieces. How would that help the average high school graduate?

They don't go near the stock market in the way a sizeable % of most countries populations doesn't go near politics and doesn't vote, that doesn't mean it's an approach that puts society first - in general it's a selfish approach. Not knowing how markets work and how they affect your life, your retirement, taxes, is knowingly eschewing knowledge about a pretty important part of life. I don't know if it should be taugh…

I never thought about that; the latter point about having an understanding to take away the power and mysticism around it. I guess it's like the tech industry - and it's easy to forget we're part of something most people also don't understand.

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

#230

Post by Broken_Hippo »

fakedang wrote: post #216
Broken_Hippo wrote: post #29

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…

I swear to God, have you posted this comment on reddit or some place else? I read this exact same comment elsewhere.

I have not, and it isn't plagiarized - but I'm not the only person that has similar views, so it is quite possible to have the same basic theme.
Post reply on HN