I hear this time and time again--- They don't teach us taxes in school, they don't teach us budgeting in school, they don't teach us X in school. Wah, wah, wah!

This is just major bullshit and is just people trying to point their fingers at a government run system to find a scapegoat. It can never be "their" fault, it's gotta be everyone else's fault.

I was never taught how to do my Taxes or how to put together a monthly budget. I had to figure that out for myself. But truly the task of budgeting and paying taxes is something that should lie upon the parents and not a government run agency. Yeah, my parents were never taught this and so could never teach it to me but they should have. I know that I will make sure that I teach my son how to do his taxes and how to budget.

Buck up Sally, take some initiative, and quit being a crybaby!

Edit - This is in response mostly to posts on the first few pages I read before posting this.

I hear this time and time again--- They don't teach us taxes in school, they don't teach us budgeting in school, they don't teach us X in school. Wah, wah, wah!

This is just major bullshit and is just people trying to point their fingers at a government run system to find a scapegoat. It can never be "their" fault, it's gotta be everyone else's fault.

I was never taught how to do my Taxes or how to put together a monthly budget. I had to figure that out for myself. But truly the task of budgeting and paying taxes is something that should lie upon the parents and not a government run agency. Yeah, my parents were never taught this and so could never teach it to me but they should have. I know that I will make sure that I teach my son how to do his taxes and how to budget.

Buck up Sally, take some initiative, and quit being a crybaby!

Edit - This is in response mostly to posts on the first few pages I read before posting this.

I 100% agree with that. The problem with using an alternate system whether as a nation or the entire world is we never have that open conversation about an alternate. We can't just say socialism or capitalism or any other form of economic will work, we have to conversate, plan and agree on how a system will work. One tactic I've thought of is your service to society should be societies service back to you. In another words if you work for a living you should be able to go to your store and attain your groceries or things you need or want. But you shouldn't just take the entire bin of beef as that doesn't leave anything left for anyone else. So then you think ration control. The problem with that is some families are bigger than others. So where's the cap? The rations for a 4 person family is the same as a 7 person family? Who makes those decisions other than a voting system to decide. Vote and decide on the individual policies, not the president/prime Minister or king or queen to make decisions for all. 

I just calculated $252 per month health insurance is the average for a single person aged 21.  And it ranges by state from a low of $180 in Utah to $366 in Wyoming ($426 in Alaska but that's to be expected).  What?  You thought we've been joking about health care and insurance costs in those other threads?  Want to cover your family of 4?  Close to $900 per month depending on age and state.

Oh, and my initial example wasn't minimum wage now was it? It was $10 per hour. So my example shows them already going up that ladder.  I only showed minimum age because that's what happens when you move from a city to a rural area.  Wages drop.  They don't stay the same.

And yes, there are social benefits but the right wants to gut them...many want to completely get rid of them.  But social welfare doesn't always cover enough. 

Roommates are more common in the urban cores of the bigger cities in the US.  It's rare in smaller cities, suburbs and rural regions.  Our houses, apartments and leasing laws/contracts are simply not often designed with that in mind.  It's all built around the way things were decades ago when a single income allowed you to easily own your home, cars, health car, etc....  Basically, our buying power today is a fraction of what it used to be.

I mean, I dunno what you call a smaller city, but in the cities I've lived in (sub 1 million metro populations in poorer areas of the South), that's not really the case. Roommates are super common and a plain 2 bd apartment in a ok part of town costs around $400-500/month (obviously split with a roommate). There's also a lot more competition for jobs in those rural areas because they don't have enough people to fill the positions. While some fast food or service places start near the minimum wage (isn't the case for most), you can pretty easily get $10/hour with just a HS degree and felony-free record.

Now, for people with families trying to live at this level, it's pretty impossible. Requires multiple jobs and help from friends/family to stay above water. But for younger people (as was the example), it's a lot more managable. Out of curosity, where do you live? I've lived in East Texas, Louisiana, and Alabama.

The interest rate on your father in law's house was also probably...around 10.5%.

So a 30 year loan (assuming 20% down payment) would have cost total of $255,000 (including the down payment).

The $270k value now will be a total cost of $448,000 over a 30 year loan (at 4.5% interest).

Per government data sites, the average wage in 1990 was $21,000 compared to $48,500 in 2016 (most recent available on data set I'm looking at on social security site). So in 1990, the house represented 12.14 years of wages, whereas in 2016 it represents 9.24 years of income. Seems to me like the house has actually gotten cheaper.

Food can be done for $100/month

Trickle down economics never seems to works..... no idea why its taught in bussiness schools.
It doesnt seem to be supported by reality.

Rather giveing tax cuts to the poorest usually have huge effects though, those people that before hand couldnt afford to buy things then can = huge spending boom = higher production = more jobs.