Originally Posted by
clenz
Nor are taxes, or anything related to it, being taught at something like 98% of schools - public or private. For some reason, and I have my theories but not the time or place, our country screams "PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY" while refusing to actually take the time to educate our youth from a young age on these forms of personal accountability. There are hundreds of thousands - hell millions or more - full grown adults that have no idea how taxes work. It's why accountants and tax pros exist. The entire tax code and tax law is written to be as confusing as possible with lobbying from tax pros and firms to ensure they have to be used.
No, this isn't a new thing either where "kids today just don't get it". I've been out of school longer than I was in it at this point. I took 3 years of accounting, and then other business/econ, in high school. Essentially none of those hours over 3 years was tax related.
My sisters are much older than I - both graduated in the very early 90s. We have very different views on life but we talk about all the different things. They also have the "take accountability" stance (which coming from them can be slightly funny at times). So I asked them the same question. When you were in HS in the 80s and 90s were you taught about filing taxes, calcuating taxes, what you need to report, what you don't need to report, when you need to report, how to prepare for money you get that you need to report? The answer was also no.
My parents are fairly early boomers, born in 51. I've asked them how much tax law was covered when they were in school, because I always hear the "PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY" and "back in my day this wasn't an issue" from the boomer ages specifically. They also said there was no tax law being covered in school.
Hand an 18 year old in 2024, 1994, 1974, 1954 a quarter million dollars and none of them will know what the **** to do with it "properly". Hell, hand a quarter million dollars cash (or wire to an account in modern times) to a 30 something in 2024, 1994, 1974, 1954 and they would have slightly more knowledge what to do with it but what knowledge they do have likely amounts to **** all.
Look how many lotto winners - of any size of note - end up going back to where they are, or at best slightly ahead. Look at the number of professional athletes who end up bankrupt within just a handful of years out of the league. When you just dump a ****load of money on someone who has never had it they will have no idea what to do with it. This isn't a personal accountability issue as much as people want to believe. Yes, of course there is that as a piece of it. There is also bad advisors, bad investments, scummy agents, etc. all getting involved and exploiting a persons lack of knowledge of what to do when more wealth gets given to someone at once than their entire family has seen for generations combined.
I also still 100% stand by my "comparing a 18-year-old at a W2 job to an 18-year-old being given straight cash that isn't taxed up front" is a dumb as **** comparison. It's disingenuous at best. That 18-year-old in the oil fields wouldn't be any different than the 18-year-old football player if they were given their yearly salary at one time with no taxes taken out of it initially.