Financial literacy isn’t the problem

Re “How to spell ‘solvency,’ ” editorial, Jan. 27

Americans aren’t financially illiterate. We are willing to work, budget, scrimp and save to achieve the American dream. The trouble is that this dream eludes most but the upper class.

Three decades ago, a single income could purchase a house and pay taxes, utilities, gas, insurance, etc. That was a time when you could buy a new home for about $20,000. Today, no single-income earner can afford to buy a house even at the “bargain” price of $400,000.

How does someone purchase a house or even keep up with rent and modern living expenses earning $30,000 a year? Today, debt -- not hard work and saving -- makes the American dream possible.

Instead of creating an Office of Financial Education or an Advisory Council on Financial Literacy, our government should instead investigate why home prices, gas prices, food prices, insurance prices and healthcare prices have skyrocketed over the years while salaries have remained relatively stagnant.

Regina Powers

Orange

Imagine learning to play basketball, except in consecutive decades they changed the surface from hardwood to AstroTurf, replaced the basket with a painted target and then had dedicated five-man defensive and offensive specialist squads. Why learn skills when the rules keep changing?

Yes, there are basics, but financial literacy doesn’t make sense when you have no sense of control over the future of your finances.

I think the wrong people are being blamed for the problem. After two horrific housing debacles (in the ‘80s and today), it’s time the brilliant financial minds admitted that deregulating the savings and loan industry was a mistake. Deregulation destroyed a haven for middle-class assets, in which we essentially funded our futures with our mortgages and taxes. It created predictability for us. Interest rate differentials were minimized in that controlled market, and loan decisions were made on the basis of well-established track records.

Brian Balek

Westlake Village