Comment by ericyd

It... is just multiplication. And can't talk about GP's experience, but I can tell you that going through scientific schooling and engineering schools in the French system you'll learn exactly how to calculate the math and never have a single example such as mentioned above.

We're here to build bridges, not count stashes of money after all!

You'd probably get those if you went through "economic studies" (which is a different track and where math includes a lot more statistics even in high school).

Not only you can, I still don't see how the financial "magic of compounding" isn't bullshit for vast majority of people - you can't really make significant money this way in reasonable time spans (5 years rather than 50).

> If they had taught you that in high school 10 or 20 years years ago, it would be outdated by now.

That's a fair criticism, but I don't think it's enough to outweigh the benefits. I think I learned how to write a check in second grade. It was useful information.

I think an understanding of why those systemic changes happened would go a long way in preparing for what’s next.

> it would be outdated by now.

It's way easier to update the tail end of knowledge you have and practices you've learnt than to start from scratch when you have no time.

Likewise, if the only stuff we could teach in grade school was stuff that would never become outdated, then we wouldn't even be able to teach more than the highest level of recent history, math foundations, super basic geology and physics, which is a pathetically low bar. Things change, it's the way it is, we should have a higher standard.

Kids won't otherwise get early exposure to learning how to start a business unless their parents did so, or investing unless their parents did, which means they probably had a surplus of resources at home and the cycle of a widening class divide continues.

The most powerful type of compound interest is early exposure to anything; an idea, a sport, money, business, computers, art. If your parents did it, you're off to a great start, but if they didn't, you're automatically set back at least a decade if not two for any of those, and public school should aim to smooth out those bumps.

I wear it proudly!

That's even worse, because the entire point of the stock market is supposed to be that investors choose where to put their money based on how the company is performing and what they're saying. I.e., you vote with your wallet, and the market therefore punishes bad behavior and rewards good behavior.

If everyone is passively investing, that no longer works. Then it's not even a market. We don't even know, for sure, if that works.

For most people it’s “what retirement savings?”

Most of my family and extended American family doesn’t really invest. I think probably 10% of us “believe” in the stock market. The rest sometimes buy houses (which I encourage because it’s better than nothing), but otherwise are planning on social security, pensions, and lump-sum savings to cover their retirement

median emergency savings in the US is $500-600

1 in 5 have $0

50% have enough to cover 3 months of expenses

Incredible HN post. I'm hoping it's because you are from a country where people are generally well taken care of.

Yes, there are people who don't invest. Where do they keep their retirement savings? 40-50% of Americans, at least, simply have no retirement savings! Most people in America aren't earning enough to put away a meaningful amount for retirement. It's going to be grim as boomers and millennials hit retirement age and have to keep working.

You’ll be surprised by how many people fear the term investment.