Are people edumacated?

Education, education, education was the Blair mantra in 1997. In fact all politicians talk about education constantly, as well they should. A society can only develop, grow and flourish if the people entering the workforce and society at large are educated. We, and by we I mean I, take it for granted that people can read and count and have a firm grasp of arithmetic. I went to school through the 70s and very early 80s and I think I got a good education. With all the focus on schools in recent years things certainly couldn’t have gotten any worse could they?

Not wanting to be dooced I can’t talk about my job too much (I so wish I could, really) but suffice I deal with financial consultants and the general public. The Financial Services Authority has recently been concerned that people do not understand some of the products they are being sold or are investing in. So it commissioned some research and the results scare me. They found that 23% of the adults surveyed could not, when given a Yellow Pages, find a plumber. Worse, 20% of people when asked ‘would you rather have £30 or 10% of £350?’ chose £30. Is it any wonder people get ripped off? These are the sort of people who complain years later – you didn’t tell me £30 was less. Do people really want to be spoon fed everthing, guided by that hand through all life’s tough decisions? Where does responsibility for your actions come into the equation?