Garwood v. Heller

> [Garwood] Similarly, the market exerts great force over consumption
> behavior.  Advertising works, or corporations would not spend hundreds
> of billions on it a year.  Despite the lack of a gun to one's head,
> the shaping of individual behavior to meet a certain norm is textbook
> coercion.

> [Heller] I don't think people are that stupid.  I do think that our
> government schools fail to teach sound financial principles.
> Therefore, many people buy, buy, buy what they want, want, want --
> whether they can afford it or not.   I personally think that public
> schools are incapable of teaching young people how to create wealth --
> because the concept is at odds with a government monopoly.

The whole idea that public schools are incapable of teaching wealth creation
is belied by all the graduates of public schools who do. (Besides, a good
education should be focused more on basic learning tools - wealth creation
is an applied aspect of such tools.)

With all due respect to the rigid ideologies....advertising works, and
schools probably don't teach enough about the downside of thoughtless
consumption or responsible financing.

However, my guess is such teaching isn't done much at public OR private
schools (after all, overconsumption/overleveraging is not exclusive to the
poor).

But could you imagine the howlings from some business interests,
suburban-based political parties and rightwing radio hosts if such teaching
actually happened � especially if the Minneapolis schools took the brave
step of doing it?

David Brauer
Kingfield

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