this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2023
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Why do Americans think you need to carry a debt to build credit? That is the opposite.
I put EVERYTHING on credit card, and pay everything off on time. Never missed a payment. My credit score was the highest it can be by the time I turned 21. I've never paid a penny in fees or interest.
That's not what they said, and Americans, in general, do not think that.
The ignorance is astounding but to be expected. 12 years of mandatory schooling and not one class on personal finance. These are not difficult concepts. They're just never conveyed.
The 12 years of mandatory schooling that they already get is wasted on most of them anyway. Mention President McKinley, and most Americans will respond with "who?"
Education in the US sucks in a lot of ways for a lot of people for a lot of reasons, and most "students" don't end up retaining much of anything as a result of those forces. We're trained to get grades based on attendance and participation, from material that is taught to the test. Very little of your grade has anything to do with whether you actually learned, digested, and retained anything...
We were all taught about the Whiskey Rebellion in high school. But bring it up in any conversation about taxes, and 99% of the time you'll get a blank stare, or "the what?"
So we can pile "financial literacy" on top of all the other things that are jammed into American curricula, and it won't make a damn bit of difference in the end. Because it doesn't matter what is taught - it's not going to be learned anyway. Payday lenders will still make bank, buy-here-pay-here dealerships will keep recycling the same cars at a huge profit, the poor will still play the lottery, and Santander will keep making car loans to under-qualified applicants at extortionate interest rates. People will still buy $70k pickup trucks on a $50k salary, and roll their negative equity into the next overpriced consumer wealth/masculinity signaling device.