Social Responsibility of Our Financial Institutions:
The next issue I would like to address is the responsibility of our financial institutions to ensure that our children graduate from high school financially literate. Now I know you’re thinking, that lesson is up to the parents, but what if the parents aren’t educated themselves. I remember when I went to college. I received countless credit card offers in the mail and my 17-year old brain was not equipped to know what to apply for and what to cut up into tiny little pieces. I didn’t know how interest compounded or what I was getting into. The fiscal lingo was like Greek to me and I found myself climbing out of debt for years afterwards.
I believe in the same way that the Phillip Morris Company has to fund anti-smoking ads that financial institutions and companies that offer credit cards or loans (all types, especially pay day and title loans) should have to fund financial literacy classes in the public school system. Why offer someone a credit card or loan when they won’t be able to make good on it because they are bad with money. I mean I know the reason that companies do it, but ethically and morally it is deplorable. These companies depend on and hope for people to miss payments so that they can get them with interest. But what’s the point? If they can’t pay the minimum, then how will they ever pay you the interest? They simply become people who are slaves to their debt unable to ever even see something that resembles the American dream. Shame on the financial institutions and shame on us for letting it go on so long.
I am disappointed in these huge corporations that have not mastered how to deal with people on a personal and caring level. A blanket approach to your customers makes them no more than their account numbers. And although this may be an okay reality for the companies, it isn’t for the single mother trying to hold on to every dollar she has in this recession so that her kids can eat tonight – or the college student that is trying to get by, or even to the small business owner who just wants a taste of the American dream. You see these are the only people who are really being affected by these policies. Just because I don’t have millions of dollars in my account, doesn’t mean that I should be disposable. Where is the social responsibility? It would seem corporations have only incorporated how to get over on the average man instead incorporating the average man into the equation. Shame on them!
We had a Consumer Skills class in my high school, but we had to take it when we were sophomores and the class was incredibly dull. In order to help us out more, I think the class should've been moved to senior year and should've been made a little more interesting. Maybe then we could be more smart about finances.
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I cannot agree with you more! Especially with your thoughts on people just becoming account numbers. I see it every day where I work and it depresses me to no end. I am one of those college students trying to get by and what you say is right on. Great post
It is especially difficult now with the rising cost of fuel and food. Some people make enough an hour to buy one gallon of gas and one gallon of milk. Many people are resorting to their credit cards just to put food on their table. A drastic increase in the cost of living and no increase in hourly wage has a huge impact on one's decision to start using their credit cards on a regular basis. And in the end, people are stuck paying 22% interest on a $50 tank of gas. Eventually, we need to learn how to just do without and find alternatives to using those cards.