Speaking on a conservative podcast last week, Senator Jon Husted confidently asserted that low-income people can’t handle daily challenges and lack basic budgeting skills. “People living in poverty are just not very experienced at navigating the real world, right?” said Husted, a Republican representing Ohio who is facing a November election, likely against former Senator Sherrod Brown.
“I remember talking to one young lady who said, ‘Well, I don’t really know how money works at a grocery store,’ because she grew up and has lived all of her adult life using SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] cards to buy groceries,” Husted continued. “So you literally have to teach people how to budget.”
Husted’s comments drew criticism from Brown and others. Deservedly so. But his statements reflect an attitude held by far more people than one out-of-touch politician. Husted’s condescension about poor Americans permeates the government and many nonprofit organizations. In these environments, it’s common to hear that people endure poverty not because they don’t have enough money but because they don’t manage their money properly. This myth is often packaged as a call for “financial literacy.”
The US Department of the Treasury has an entire commission devoted to financial literacy. The Congressional Research Service has issued a report claiming that “African American and Hispanic adults, women, lower-income adults,” and “adults with less formal education” all lack financial literacy. Missing from the report was any acknowledgment of the decades of stagnant wages and intensifying inequality, generations of racial discrimination in housing policy, and other structural factors that disadvantage these groups.
The International Federation of Accountants claims that a lack of financial literacy perpetuates poverty. Nonprofit organizations create four-week training courses to teach homeless families about money management. These…
Auteur: Fran Quigley
