<prompt> Human: After a bit of a spat on Reddit, Im coming to the conclusion that people, maybe more of the Redditor population, are woefully ignorant of just how money works, what its worth, and how its used. I think in this sub, most of you would agree that money, like everything else in your life, is a resource. A limited resource, sure, but it can serve two essential functions:1. You use it to purchase OTHER necessary resources.2. You use it to get even more of it. Because money is a resource, and other people will pay you for to use it. Its the driving force behind the concept of interest.Today, in the TIL thread about Zimbabwe, I watched countless Redditors talk about finances like money was something unachievable. Now, Im not here to say that every wealthy person worked for their money. Some have, some havent, so it goes. But why oh why isnt this information taught in school? Money management, saving for retirement, estimating how much you should spend on various expenses, all of this should be taught to students in high school before they get on with their adult lives. Does this drive anyone else as crazy as it does me?  <response>: I agree with you completely, but see two problems with that.First, as others have mentioned, kids have no frame of reference for the concept of a budget or investment for a future they dont believe in back in HS, I honestly, seriously believed I wouldnt live past 30. You can force them to memorize the words, but unused skills quickly vanish, just like that two years of FrenchSpanish they also made you take.Second, the current educational climate in the US, at least has zero motivation to teach real skills, when they only get measured on core academics. Dont mistake what schools do for any sort of life-preparedness training; what little off-book training they do squeeze in goes more toward producing docile, obedient consumercitizens than toward producing well-rounded functional participants in the economy.Personally, I would say that parents need to teach this by making kids budget for their actual expenses starting as soon as they grasp the idea of basic arithmetic. But then, as you point out, most people in general aka parents in this context lack those same skills... Cant teach what they dont know. 