Post
Topic
Board Politics & Society
Merits 1 from 1 user
Re: DeSantis Vows to Abolish IRS, Advocates Flat Tax in Presidential Bid Amidst Stif
by
suchmoon
on 07/02/2024, 00:36:04 UTC
⭐ Merited by vapourminer (1)
Question. I have read in The United States personal debt can be a serious matter, and a very crippling problem for many people who live in debt. How realistically it would be to say it has something to do with the personal mathematical pro-efficiency such person has to manage numbers in general?
I ask because to me, money management in a personal level is just matter of adding basic income and subtracting the expenses, the needs and wants, etc.
Would not be unfair to say people cannot do math and hence become involved in a very serious debt?
If that was true then you would be implying a very important percentage of the people of the United States cannot do math to a basic level. I would like to think that is just rather a stereotype foreigners have on them.  Sad

It might be an exaggeration that "most" can't do basic math but for sure "many" can't. And when it comes to money and debt, there are some shitty business practices, like selling big items with a focus on monthly payments and not on the total cost. For example if you buy a car, all you'll ever hear (unless you specifically ask the right questions) at a dealership is your monthly loan or lease payment. "Just put your signature on this disclosure page, it's fine, don't worry about the $20k interest and $10k in dealership fees, the monthly payment is still what you wanted it to be, because we extended your loan to 8 years".

But all the sketchy-borderline-fraud salesmanship aside, at the root of it all is people not doing math, whether they're too stupid or too lazy.