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Teaching people to manage money used to be the purpose of classes like "home economics" in US public schools. Over the past 40ish years, home ec (and civics) have been systematically pared down and removed from public school curricula across the country.

When I took the classes in the late 90s, it was basically "learn how to bake this one thing and hand sew a ripped cloth." A few years later when my sister was in high school, home ec wasn't even a class anymore. I'm not sure if the class still exists in any US public school system. However, my parents remember being taking it in the 60s and being taught to make a household budget and balance a checkbook, in addition to cooking and basic mending/repair.

Point is, the education piece teaching people to manage money used to be there, and has been purposefully removed.




A focus in public education would certainly be helpful. So would any number of private initiatives. I think like many bad behaviors there can be a cycle that repeats as it is passed down from parents to children. Whether it's abuse, drug use, gangs, or managing money - breaking that cycle is the key. Individuals break out all the time, but it seems like that's the exception. And when it does happen, it seems like someone or some group reached out to that individual to provide exposure to other behaviors that have obviously better outcomes. That's the kind of approach that needs to be exploited imo.




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