The push for financial literacy as a panacea for systemic economic instability is a neoliberal sleight of hand. It’s a moral cop-out, allowing institutions to pathologize poverty while absolving themselves of designing systems that prey on human behavior.

Consider retirement: we dismantled pensions, replaced them with 401(k)s, and now blame individuals for not magically becoming Warren Buffett. Or student loans: we tell 18-year-olds to “shop around” for degrees as if education is a commodity, not a societal investment. Healthcare? “Just be a savvy HSA optimizer!” Meanwhile, the system is a Skinner box of late-stage capitalism—overdraft fees, algorithmic rent hikes, predatory loans—all while whispering, “You should’ve read the fine print.”

Behavioral economics has shown we’re not rational actors. Yet the system demands perfect foresight: save exactly enough, borrow exactly enough, die just before your 401(k) runs out. When people fail (and they do, because life is stochastic), we scold them for not being “literate” enough, rather than asking why basic survival requires a PhD in personal finance.

This isn’t empowerment—it’s exploitation gaslit as morality. Countries with robust social safety nets don’t obsess over teaching kids to day-trade; they structure defaults that work for humans. Financial literacy has value, but weaponizing it to justify atomizing every risk onto individuals? That’s not education. That’s a rigged game wearing a meritocratic mask.