The rich are getting richer but are you? The shrinking middle class is a global crisis but namely in G8 nations (e.g. England, France, Germany and Japan). The income disparity between the rich and the rest of the USA population is so wide and so fast that it might destabilise democratic capitalism. The former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan notes the cause of the problem is education. The more educated you become the richer you get. Employees are rewarded for bringing value to the marketplace, the higher education you have the superior value you bring to the marketplace. Other financial experts lay the cause of the problem as financial education. There are three types of financial advice: advice for the poor, advice for the middle class and advice for the rich. The poor are counting on Social Security and Medicare. The middle class have the advice: get a job, work hard, live below your means, invest for the long term in mutual funds and diversify. The middle class is full of passive investors i.e. people who invest to not lose. The advice for the rich is having money work for you than having working for money by becoming an investor. And have other people work for you as an entrepreneur. Rich people are active investors i.e. they invest to win.
1. Academic- literacy, numeracy and IT skills done taught in high school
2. Professional- University studies which helps provide the credentials to land a rewarding, secure job with great benefits.
3. Financial- the process of identifying, measuring and communicating economic information to permit informed decisions. You can get a financial education by going to business school and doing majors in Economics, Finance and Accounting.
Today in the Information Age, the middle class is being wiped out and so is democratic capitalism. Economists are noticing that pensions and healthcare for the middle class and poor are becoming extinct. In Australia the welfare state is being scaled back, the ascendance of free markets and liberal democracy.