SINGAPORE: A man on social media started a conversation about price increases and suggested teaching economics in secondary schools. He asked, “Why don’t we teach economics subject in secondary schools to prevent so much ignorance nowadays?”
“It’s shocking to me how most working adults I speak to still dont know basic fundamental economics. Price increases is a good example of the typical complaint from Singaporeans since the dawn of time. Do people not know how and why inflation happens? And why it’s necessary for an economy to grow?
Based on the latest SG household income stats, the country is actually doing comparatively well in terms of keeping up with rising costs.
Also the whole point of growing an economy is to have rising prices. The opposite, called deflation, is actually bad and can cause recession.
Yet to the average Singaporean, he/she just thinks ‘price goes down is good’, ‘recession is baaaad….’ when the two are literally correlated.” his post read.
“This is also really why I feel economics should be a subject taught in secondary school. Unless a person studied and picked the right JC stream and did a business/econs course in poly/uni, it seems the vast majority of people naturally have no clue at all about economics,” he added.
Users on social media chimed into the conversation he started.
One commented on the necessity of basic economics education, proposing, “No need to teach the whole econs, just chapter 1 intro to econs and macro since not much is readily applicable, conducted in an enrichment class format, if they’d like.
People hardly think beyond that anyway, so doesn’t matter.“
Commenting on the ignorance part, he noted that whether “most people educated or not,” many are “apathetic to these issues.” He added, “they only care about the number behind the $ sign and nothing else about it. What to do?”
Another user answered, countering the idea of inflation the Redditor who posted shared. He stated:
“Um, the basic premise you outlined that inflation is necessary for an economy to grow is not, in fact, something that is taught in standard economic theory.
Inflation and deflation are neutral features with respect to economic growth. There is certainly a popular line of economic thought that it is slightly better to have controllable inflation than to have deflation, but there is no widely accepted causal link between inflation and growth, or between deflation and lack of growth.”
One user shared a personal experience where he had an additional course on investments and financial literacy, sharing that although the additional course was available, it was “optional” and “people could choose what they want.” He then shared that instead of learning financial literacy, “more people went to photography.”
“Moral of the story, can’t make a horse drink water. Those who want to learn will already learn, those who don’t know had no intention of learning on the first place. You might wish you was taught earlier but the truth is that even if it was, you wouldn’t care for it until the right time,” he said.
Another commented that the problem is not if economics is taught. He said, “People were taught science in school but still do not understand simple law of physics or chemistry.
People who yearn knowledge will find them, there is libraries and internet. People who just want to complain will still complain no matter how irrational they are.”
Another had the same thought, stating, “Not about knowledge of economics. Many people will complain given any chance. Complain when it rains, complain when the weather is hot, complain when there no seats in mrt, complain about noise in the neighbourhood. Its deeply ingrained into human DNA.”
So, is an economics course in secondary school the answer to “so much ignorance,” or as Redditors suggest, do people just love to complain and are apathetic to these issues?/TISG
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