If the powers be had a diabolical plan to keep much of the world’s population subservient, stressed and short-sighted, because that suited their business interests — all they would have to do is deliberately ensure that much of world’s population is unschooled in the subject of money.

Their plan is working swimmingly.

Fact: Only 33 percent of adults worldwide are financially literate. This means that around 3.5 billion adults globally, most of them in developing economies, lack an understanding of basic financial concepts.

Calls for change to the financial literacy situation have largely fallen on deaf ears or been rewarded with halfhearted attempts that fizzle out due to lack of continued interest or funding.

Now, it makes perfect sense that there is a lack of interest from these powers that be, they are after all safeguarding their golden goose.

It would be silly of them to school their customers in the subject of money when it is precisely that ignorance that they are profiting off of.

What is confounding is the lack of interest from us, the repeatedly injured party, who don’t seem to have the time or inclination to learn about the one subject that would protect us in many ways from being injured and taken advantage of.

Could it be that we are so inured to the situation that we no longer even realize that things could be different?

Could we be so blinded with the short term gains and instant gratification that we are unable to look ahead and recognize the toxic financial fallout we will be subject to, time and time again? Even when we see it play out daily in the lives of those around us?

Could we be so overwhelmed by the short term cost, effort and time commitment of changing things that we knowingly trade this for blissful ignorance and inaction?

Whatever reason we choose to rationalize this for ourselves, we need to think deep and hard about using the same flawed reasoning when comes to our teenagers.

We need to remember that the system isn’t broken, it was built this way. It was built to benefit those on one side of the wealth gap, while deliberately disadvantaging those on the other end of this yawning, ever widening gap.

To borrow from Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar where Cassius says, “The fault, dear Brutus is not in our stars, but in ourselves, that we are underlings.”

We need to shake ourselves out of this reverie and take some definitive steps to change things. No one else has as much to lose, except our teenagers.