People need to be taught about investing and the time value of money from an early age. If you invest in some low-cost index funds, you share in the profits. And if you start early, it doesn't have to be a big sacrifice.
This arguably would be only valuable for people in the middle class to upper middle class.
EDIT: the statistic is 46%[0]. Okay, it's not "most" people but it's a good fraction. I wouldn't be surprised that >50% can't weather a $1000 emergency.
[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/05/25/the-s...
Sure, but do these mooc/online courseware platforms teach one how to apply these new tangential skills and translate them into CV language and personal development actions that will get them hired? Especially if one is not already mentally inclined to join a 21st century workforce?
I'm asking this coming from the perspective of someone born in rural South Carolina (in a portion of the United States known as 'The Bible Belt') who is an entirely self-taught programmer, versed in a couple of languages-and realized I had to go to an entirely different part of the world to even make use of what I had learned. So my mind is going out to those people who don't live in dense urban areas and are maybe looking for a relatively 'future-proof' job that may as well be asking the to learn an alien language.
It was only by circumstance alone that I got exposed to the kind of entrepreneurial thinking needed for me to realize early on: I'm not gonna do jack shit with these computer skills, there's no market here, I live in a town that used to be a booming textile center and is now an economically depressed shithole (I say that lovingly, it's my economically depressed shithole), and has been for the last 30 years-forcing me to pack up and leave.
Do you think a substantial number of people who have internet have the same circumstances I did to know "I have this skill now, thanks to an online course, and now I need to follow up on it by making this sacrifice to put myself in a position where these new skills will get me hired. I need to be having these discussions with recruiters and hiring mangers, and doing these things to stand out"? Or even have the resources to pack up and plant their butt in a different part of the country?
Personally, I don't know if all of these code camps and online training programs do more than say "Here's a wrench, here's how to use it, good luck with your future as a wrench turner".
Can anyone speak to career development as an extension of this wealth of online knowledge? I just have hesitations of what utility these programs offer beyond here's how to do x with n.
Understand, there are people in this country who have been working since 16 to provide for themselves, they work for less than 9 dollars an hour, and still pay rent, utilities, medical bills, car payments and more. They didn't have hours during summer to sit around and play video games that they could have spent watching MIT courses instead. They today, still don't have the time to game the system and get ahead that others have.
The ability to get ahead by shear will is far beyond the will and patience most people who write medium posts about coder burnout have to contend with, the difference is instead of possibly not becoming a more well off person with higher net worth, the possibility is dying or incurring more debt.
Regardless, even if single individuals can get ahead, that's fine and commendable in some sense, but there will be many more who won't, the shear majority won't because the system itself produces these circumstances, and in fact, profits off it. What we see is the function of the way we set up companies and society in general.
We know they don't have enough money to invest. Average income + average cost of living < amount needed to safely invest.
We've quite literally known about if for years on a national scale. He doesn't have to show anything.
I got frustrated at face value because increasing wages would do more to alleviate a lot of American's financial woe's -- now and later -- than (rightfully) helping to educate Americans about investing money. You're right, even small bouts of investment can net large gains in the future. I jumped the gun and took it as "if you just stopped being dumb with money everything would be better!"
Wage increases are not only largely (historically) objectively justifiable, but wage increases would be more consistent and easier to "implement" than educating an entire populace in a better manner. There would also be the enormous task of changing purchasing habits. We know that even when people understand "doing X is bad for future results", that doesn't mean they'll make the more rational choice.
Neither perspective is exclusive. We can increase wages and we should also invest in educating Americans about sound financial practices. But wage increases can happen now, would be immediately beneficial to everyone, while also making it easier to invest and take on the risks associated with investing.
I agree with everything else you said here. More money is always going to be the quickest and simplest fix for this. I was simply pointing out that financial education should also be part of an ideal solution and that education alone is "better than nothing."
Prove that is possible. Find an investment that will do that.
For a reasonable return on investment you would be looking at 10k-15k final total depending on your luck.
And I bet it is a combination of the two. Just I think it is probably 0.1% of because people don't do something they've generally never done and 99.9% that real wages haven't kept up with inflation.
You could teach them the "value of money" all day long, but if they don't have money to save it won't do them any good.
If everyone invested as much as they could, people wouldn't buy enough to drive company profits like you see today, or to be the last people holding the bags when a recession occurs.
Also stock markets don't go up forever, Japan's Nikkei topped in 1989, and as of now, has barely recovered half the value. Do you really think even index funds are risk free when you can have a 50% loss for 30 years?
Retirement isn't something to leave to chance. Social insurance applies the law of large numbers to eliminating much of that.
The US pensions crisis is going to be devastating beyond all belief.
As long as you can regard being poor as a moral failure you can tell yourself you're still a good person (and not an insensitive, selfish one).
What could go wrong with millions of people believing in a simplistic investment strategy that always works. Kinda like buy a house real estate prices always go up. Well, for all the private equity funds that picked up real estate and banks at pennies on the dollar.
Many people who enter a program to learn how to budget quickly learn how all the monthly bills in their life add up quickly to consume their income. Examples are spending too much on cell and internet service plans, too many subscriber entertainment services, gym memberships, eating out wastefully, and more. Even the knowledge the buying a car with a term over 42 months is too much car is important to know.
Yes there are some in society who truly are at limits but we have to follow a different means to get them back to functional levels. It still benefits them immensely to learn strict budgeting that they can take forward when their income stabilizes.
Where is your post about how million dollar CEOs need to cut their executive pay budgets, stop paying for new yachts, and pay their workers a higher share of profits instead of taking higher pay, in order to encourage the economy?
Why is it the people who have the least who have to tighten their belts?