Sophomore physiology and neurobiology major
Benjamin Franklin once famously said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” and unfortunately, he was absolutely correct. Historically, revolution and war have long accompanied increasing taxes, and multitudes of lives were lost and changed forever over the seemingly trite issue of tax enforcement.
And so, it boggles me how nowadays we neglect to teach basic accounting principles in our school systems. Instead of learning how to derive the slopes of lines, is it not more prudent and useful to learn how to file taxes and how to establish good credit? By knowing about these basic accounting tasks and being somewhat financially literate, it is quite possible that our whole society might benefit.
Recently, I attended the National Conference on Ending Poverty in Washington, where one of the guest speakers talked about how impoverished people were often victims of loan sharks and caught in vicious cycles of debt in which they did not understand the necessity of good credit and amassed large debts, taking out even more loans to cover their prior debts.
Teaching these financial principles earlier would help individuals of all social and financial levels. Sure, the argument can be made that in the end, some banks and some of these quick-cash loan companies ultimately would be financially hurt, but is it even ethical for banks and loan companies to profit off what is essentially lack of education?
By ensuring students graduate with basic accounting comprehension, we might even be able to reduce our overall national debt.
Right now, our country is enslaved by rampant consumerism, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be this way.
If everyone learned how to budget and spend only what he or she could afford, would that really hurt our economy in the long run? By molding more fiscally-conscious citizens, we give them the autonomy to make better decisions for themselves and for their country.
Believe me, as a person who is majoring in physiology and neurobiology, I love learning about science. But I believe that it is also necessary to learn and understand something that is more universally practical.
By understanding how insurance companies work and how banking and monetary systems operate, we could be able to change society for the better with improved legislation and financial regulation of previously untouchable entities.
Nowadays, we complain so much about the “1 percent” and how unequal wealth distribution is the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer, and with this increased emphasis on financial literacy across all age levels, we might finally have a mechanism to institute societal change.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said, “The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough for those who have little,” and I believe that the only way to truly accomplish that is by restructuring our existing education system to include fundamental financial literacy.
Max An is a sophomore physiology and neurobiology major. He can be reached at maxandbk@gmail.com.
