During recent weeks we have been hearing on a regular basis about the widening gap between the wealthy and the rest of society. Some feel the solution is to take more money from the wealthy and redistribute it to the rest.
I think I have a better idea. Rather than trying to narrow the gap between the wealthy and the rest of society by transferring wealth, why not spread the knowledge around and give everyone access to the skills necessary to build wealth? Yes, there are some who achieve wealth through immoral or even illegal activities, but the majority of people who achieve wealth do so because somewhere along the line they took it upon themselves to develop legitimate, honest wealthbuilding skills. Examples of this include starting a business, becoming a top professional or salesperson in one’s field or becoming world-class investor/trader, to name a few.
I propose that all students in U.S. public high schools should be required to take classes in the basics of personal finance and wealth building. We have too many “financial illiterates” who graduate high school in this country totally lacking any meaningful wealth-building skills.
The curriculum would include simple topics such as balancing a checkbook and maintaining a household budget. The curriculum would then cover the more advanced concepts such as the basics of investing in stocks, bonds, commodities, real estate, etc., with an emphasis on how asset allocation in these instruments changes with a person’s age and economic climate. In addition, they would learn about insurance (health, life, homeowner’s, etc.), annuities, proper use of credit and everything else needed for them to manage their own finances and build wealth.
Optional classes in sales, marketing, starting a business and advanced investing techniques could also be offered to those students who really want to develop wealthbuilding skills.
The goal should be to increase the overall wealth of the country by boosting the wealth of the lower and middle classes not by reducing the wealth of the upper class. The best way to do this is by educating them. This way, the majority of the next generation of Americans will have the skill set necessary to be far less dependent on the government or their employers for their financial security, and the overall wealth of this country would increase significantly.
Mark Ferry
East Brunswick