Who believes that the current economic crisis is a result of a lack of economic education in schools? Economic education IMO is the only thing that can fix this problem long term.
"Anarchism misunderstands the real nature of man. It would be practicable only in a world of angels and saints" - Ludwig von Mises
I am a 9th grade history teacher and agree with you. Not only do the students not receive any information on the problem with the current system of money and banking most teachers are so clueless about the true problems that they could not possably teach the students anything abiout it.
I don't think a lack of economic education education has much to do with the crisis. What really produces bubbles and the subsequent bust is simply the psychology of fear and greed. Bubbles have appeared all through-out mankind - tulip mania, south seas bubble, Great Depression, etc.
People were getting rich by taking on more and more risk. And the more people made, the more they engaged in these activities. Washington just stands aside as they collect money from lobbyists and special interests. Risktakers of late also share widespread expectations that they will be bailed out and thus take on even more risk. So we have both a human psychology and moral hazards problem.
Many people associated with this crisis are in fact very economically literate. Deep down, politicians in Washington know what they are doing is wrong. But political pressures are what's driving their decision making. Bush has an MBA from Havard, yet he's asking Congress to buy up $700B in toxic debt.
To be entirely frank, I think the root cause is the government. It's not what they did or did not do. It is the very fact that they do anything and that they even exist as a government. A "government" is in fact a company which does business by force and whose existence as such most people today legitimize as necessary and unavoidable, mostly due to ingnorance rather than malice or true conviction.
How can a free market be a free market if there is a company which coercively assumes a monopoly over it? How can such a market really function long term when its consistent urge towards equilibrium is disrupted by the coercive action of this company we call the government? It is like having a weighing instrument measuring the weight of two objects and then deliberately pushing down one of the objects you're measuring and calling that the "regulation". It's ridiculous.
If government didn't exist then the education would be better as well because people wouldn't be spoon fed the government approved or at least socially accepted "truths", but would learn about the very way their society functions - a free market, not government and their "regulation" and collectivist principles (lies). Of course, to even have a hope of one day establishing a society without coercion (thus without government) education is the key, educating people about the true nature of government.
bullfrog:Risktakers of late also share widespread expectations that they will be bailed out and thus take on even more risk
How true. And bailed out by whom? The government. Funded by whom? The central banks which abuse the coercion of government for their profit. Remove the government from the equation and there would be no such foolish expectations. And even if there were, nobody would bail them out - they would just fail and their wealth would be transfered to those with better business brains and more productive activities.
People don't need to know anything about economics to participate in the economy, just like they don't need to know anything about the physics of light in order to use a television.
The idea that you can educate people to become more than they are is an old leftist myth that has failed over and over and over.
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Insofar as economic education would help implement policies that limit financial crisis like the one we're experience now, if not completely get rid of them, then yes one could say the problem is the lack of economic education. But what else is new?
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