Financial Literacy

Big words and lofty phrases always impress me because there is an opportunity to learn something new. Unfortunately I am disappointed 80% of the time. By the time I look up the word or find out what the phrase means I also find the words or phrases are used out of context or that the person saying these words doesn’t really understand the meaning. The title of this post is one of those disappointments – FINANCIAL LITERACY. I heard it the other day in a presentation about investing for the future. I don’t remember what the spiel was but I sure do remember the phrase and I remember trying to figure out what they meant because low and behold the phrase was used out of context. I went back to the presentation because I remembered where it came from and here is what an old redneck gleaned from FINANCIAL LITERACY. Literacy means to read and comprehend, Financial means things of monetary value. Now I don’t know about the world you live in but in my world that is a fancy phrase for common sense and common sense tells me that this phrase was used to bait anyone looking to invest their hard earned money into an OXYMORON.

Our entire existence has come to be resting in the laps of sophisticated education, big words and lofty phrases. No one knows what is being said or being done because they hide the truth in the weeds of words and empirical implications all designed to suit the purpose of the one saying it or the interpretation of the one reading or listening to it. When is the last time the Ivy League educated head of the Federal Reserve has done the right thing or even said the right thing – it’s a trick question. NEVER. Volcker got lucky during the Reagan administration but that wasn’t the plan. How about our double talking Secretary of State ( you can take your pick ) or our incoherent President and Representatives – you can take your pick here too. The judicial Branch might as well be part of the Executive branch, even the general population weighs in at 47% totally useless.

Yeah, I am mad, on a rant ….. whatever you want to think but as Israel is fighting for its life, as we are closing embassies’ in the middle east, as our borders are being invaded and as Russia is shooting civilian planes out of the sky, all our government can do is go on vacation without confronting even one of the issues. My family has been involved in every conflict this nation has had since the Spanish American War – the last two (Viet Nam and Iraq/Afghanistan) our country walked away from. I can’t count the number of people I knew that died in Viet Nam and my son could tell you the same thing in Iraq and Afghanistan. We the people have given up our responsibility of keeping our country on the right path and instead entrusted the lyingest, cheatingest, stealingest political system in our history to take us into a depth of despair we have not seen since the Civil War. We have been duped by big words and fancy phrases when common sense is the only solution.