It's not financial management that is the core problem. It is the notion that money is just an inconvenient formality that comes with getting whatever one is told one wants by relentless corporate pressure. It's a positive feedback loop that pushes prices higher and higher as demand is pumped harder and harder which makes people take up more and more debt to keep up.

What needs to be taught is delayed gratification, not needing everything and anything that will just get discarded or disregarded five seconds later. That, that right there, is corporate America's nightmare, Americans that stop squandering their money on inconsequential things. Could you imagine what would happen if Americans even started..... dare I say it.... save money.