I just finished reading this book. One passage caught my attention: “If the misery of our poor be caused not by the laws of nature but by our institutions, great is our sin.” I realize by reading this statement we have been brainwashed and dealt a tricked hand in the area of financial literacy.
I have come to this conclusion due to the overwhelming evidence of advancements made by the less than valued cultural people of our society. Martin Luther King helped coined the phase “We Shall Overcome” (racism).
Racism, hatred is only alive because of fear from the people who run our great institutions of higher learning. The “ruling class” clings to their power by holding down the rest of us. That chain is being broken at a very slow rate and the only way to overcome being poor is to become rich with knowledge. My sister calls me Mr. Rich, not because I have money to burn (I do not). She calls me Mr. Rich because am rich in knowledge. My speciality is Persona Finance and Investment Education. I will spend the rest of my life spreading financial knowledge to all I know.
Why am I committed to doing this?
We don’t have a problem between the rich and the poor, we have a problem with sharing knowledge. This lack of sharing creates a divide between the haves and the have nots. In this conversation let’s set aside those that are mentally ill due to physical or biological issues.
Let’s begin to talk about the fact that certain classes of people are marginalized because of the color of their skin or the zip code of their neighborhood. We can over come this by incentivizing education and putting resources into our children at birth.
I believed if we start teaching financial literacy when our children are able to pick up a pencil and learn their ABC’s, we could wipe out poverty in two to three generations. We need to add financial literacy to Reading, Writing and Arithmetic to the curriculum as a standard of education in America.
Reading is 1st and foremost. One of the things I notice is we don’t read. I wrote a book “A Beginners Guide to Wealth Building” and quite a few people bought the book. Yet when I asked them about it, they could not tell me anything about it. I realized one important thing: they have not read it.
I know, I know. Reading about finance can be boring and intimidating. People are afraid to talk about it because they (deep down inside) think they have failed in their personal financial management.
This is an institutional problem that must be corrected. The wealthy and the learned (educated) read. They read a lot. They also ask a lot of questions when they read something they don’t understand.
It’s time to pass get pass that. We need to read to our children (every at night before they go to sleep) and make financial literacy a dinner time discussion. If we don’t do this we have created the greatest sin of all.
Oh, this book pissed me off because it explains how institutional racism is formulated and applied. It didn’t start out with slavery. It was started way before that.
I am going to get off my soap box and end with this question: Now that you know, what are you going to do about it?
My three cents,
R.LaMont W.
