There would be more concensus on financial and economic issues if most people actually had a functional education in these subjects. Unlike other subjects like math where the basic principles are first taught in elementary school progressively leading to more complex principles, in my state of Tennessee, personal finance appears to be a once and done course. In my opinion, the textbook offerings written by academics show a marked lack of practicality in real life application. Students lose interest because they can't see how studying finance and economics would help them personally when they are mired in a truck load of academic BS most likely written by someone who never actually worked in finance in real life. If students were actually taught how finance and economic issues affect them in real life in real ways, it would do a great deal to restore agreement on core issues. What we have now is a free for all anything goes mentality that can't work in the long term and just leads to division and fighting instead of just dealing with the problem.
