The big bang won’t pay the bills

    Last week, I was asked by the director of the Coverdell Institute and the dean of the political science department to be a member of a board of four who would help with presenting questions to candidate John Barrow and incumbent Max Burns during their political debate over the 12th District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. To me, this was a great honor to be thought of for the position, as well as a delight to be able to be involved in such a big debate. During the debate, I fielded a question out of the audience and presented it to both men for debate. The question was one that seems to be a hot one during all Southern elections, that of whether the candidate supports or is against teaching creationism in our public school systems.
    Not to my surprise, both men answered that they did, in fact, support-teaching creationism in our public schools. Personally, I have no problem telling you all that I was sorely disappointed. 
    Whether or not I was disappointed in both candidates’ answers is irrelevant though. In truth, anyone who has any idea about Southern politics will tell you that both candidates were going to say they supported it. To say they did not would have been political suicide for either opponent in the race. No, to be honest with you, I was more disappointed that that one question stays hot on people’s minds, while more pressing issues are surrounding us in every day life.
    America is entering an era never before encountered. We are seeing the emergence of the Information Age, Globalization, high deficits due to government spending and the problems of Social Security. By the time we get ready to retire, we will have paid huge sums of money for retirement support, even though we will not get it. Most likely, we will have also had to pay higher taxes to support those still receiving it, as well as having to deal with inflation. So what is our answer? Well, right now it is credit cards and loans.
    The new generation, my generation, has no idea about financial independence. Ask someone at this school what a Roth IRA is, and they laugh. Ask to see their credit card, and they will pull out two. 
    So what does this matter? Well, our parents and grandparents got where they are through hard work and corporate retirement plans. That era is over. We have entered into a time that lacks retirement and job security, and we haven’t even realized it. What we consider middle class is slowly disappearing.
    From this point on, Americans are going to have to plan and take care of themselves as they get older. So shouldn’t the government at least teach us how to do it?
    Financial education is becoming a necessity, not just a trait of the rich. If we don’t realize this now, our future is going to be mired in credit card debts and bad savings habits. Instead of politicians touting their belief in teaching creationism, they should show support for teaching financial independence.
    Creationism won’t pay the rent, but proper investments will.  

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Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 8 2006. Filed under Other. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry