Perspective

The second world war changed the character of the western world,and of other parts as well. Previous to the war advanced education was the preserve of the upper classes, who were thus able to maintain their stranglehold on worthwhile careers, and on disposable income, whereas the uneducated had to make do with a subsistence life. The war changed all that.

In America there was the GI Bill of Rights which opened college up to all those young men and women who had brains, but no money. Gradually a whole new society came into being, where disposable income was not an elitist perk, but in various measures was available to a wide spectrum of working people.

Unfortunately, nobody, as far as I can see, thought that it would be a good idea to teach these newly affluent people how to manage their new resources. The tragic result we now see all around us. Unsuspecting people thought they could trust banks, especially internationally respected Wall Street firms, without trying to find out what kind of an investment they were buying, from these supposed men of integrity.

This morning I read of a little town in Germany. A local church is gradually losing its congregation, and income. It decided to protect its future by investing its four million euros of funds with a Wall Street firm. What a tragedy.