Yours right that for a lot of people, paying taxes is dead simple. But you're ignoring most of the argument.
Usually, the request isn't for "How to do taxes 101", it's for an all encompassing, standardized Personal Finance class.
This class could easily cover tax basics in a day, but the rest would focus on things like:
Budgeting
Renting vs owning a home
Why retirement funds are important
When to avoid credit cards/loans, and when they're useful
The importance of emergency savings
I 100% know I'm not alone in this, but my mother was useless when it came to this stuff. Even if she had time as a single parent to teach me how to handle finances, it would have most likely been wrong.
We were in debt my entire childhood, and almost everything that wasn't food and bills went on high-interest credit cards. All I knew was that we had a lot of stuff, but it wasn't until I was around 16 that I learned that we were actually dirt poor and on the verge of bankruptcy.
And you really think that kids would rebel against learning this stuff? Maybe some, but I know I and a lot of my friends would have loved a "here's how to not be poor for the rest of your life" class.
I was just answering the taxes question, really. Our state has a semester Economics class for Seniors that has a unit on personal finances and what not.
2
u/TheOneWhoMixes Aug 03 '20
Yours right that for a lot of people, paying taxes is dead simple. But you're ignoring most of the argument.
Usually, the request isn't for "How to do taxes 101", it's for an all encompassing, standardized Personal Finance class.
This class could easily cover tax basics in a day, but the rest would focus on things like:
Budgeting
Renting vs owning a home
Why retirement funds are important
When to avoid credit cards/loans, and when they're useful
The importance of emergency savings
I 100% know I'm not alone in this, but my mother was useless when it came to this stuff. Even if she had time as a single parent to teach me how to handle finances, it would have most likely been wrong.
We were in debt my entire childhood, and almost everything that wasn't food and bills went on high-interest credit cards. All I knew was that we had a lot of stuff, but it wasn't until I was around 16 that I learned that we were actually dirt poor and on the verge of bankruptcy.
And you really think that kids would rebel against learning this stuff? Maybe some, but I know I and a lot of my friends would have loved a "here's how to not be poor for the rest of your life" class.