A few months back I laid out some arguments for why improving people's basic financial literacy is not only good for individuals, but for society as a whole. This morning, Canada announced the creation of a national task force on financial literacy that is based upon that very assumption. If this task force can make even a dent in our collective financial ignorance, it is something to be happy about.
The Canadians are by no means trailblazers on this front: Australia commissioned a report published in 2004 that, among other things, led to the creation of a website called Understanding Money. This is good stuff, and there may be yet more examples out there.
The real challenge is getting the people who most need the advice to actually read these things. This is similar to the problem facing national health agencies who produce those little charts explaining how many portions of fruits and vegetables, etc, you should be consuming per day: positive selection bias. The people who put the charts on their fridge are those who are already consciencious of their health. Or mothers. How they plan on approaching this issue remains to be seen, but this is a welcome development all the same.
Does anyone know of similar websites, government or otherwise, that provide this kind of information? Throw 'em at us.
