Financial Mess Stems From Poor Math Education

I don’t think it’s as simple as that, but there is certainly some truth to it. The United States has, for a long time, been far behind other countries when it comes to math. What’s more, we’re a nation that suffers from a lack of knowledge when it comes to basic subjects such as personal finance, too. The Tucson Citizen op-ed piece nails that part of the story down. But as much as I’d like to chalk up our current financial mess to a poor math skills, I can’t. That’s because greed was probably the biggest culprit in this entire mess.From the story:We can try to pin the blame on Wall Street bankers, Congress or Washington regulators – and sure, they bear some responsibility. But ultimately we need to address the underlying problem: our complete failure to provide students with vital thinking skills in math and financial literacy.This is a nation in which only three states require a high school course in personal finance, and our survey results bear that out.Besides their surprising inability to calculate percentages, our survey also found that more than half the respondents couldn’t define a subprime mortgage and a similar number did not recognize the role of the FICO score in applying for credit.This is particularly troublesome given the number of people accessing credit. Borrowing against future income can be tremendously useful, but it carries serious risks.There can be little doubt that weak math skills allowed some people to get duped by slick mortgage brokers. But let’s not kid ourselves. The biggest reason for our current woes can be directly attributed to greed.