Laughingly, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to highlight Oxford Dictionaries’ International Word of the Year 2016, post-truth, an adjective defined as:
“relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.”
Why was I laughing?
Since 2002, my research, writing, and consulting to help everyday people learn the whole truth about money, wealth, and the economy have mostly fallen on deaf ears. As often as possible, I obtain publicly available information, statistics, and graphics from the Federal Reserve and US government agencies to share and expose the realities of current inflation, economic policies and monetary mechanics of the central bank.
But it doesn’t seem to matter how official my sources are when it comes to who wants to know.
The problem, as I’ve analyzed over the years, is that the for-profit corporate financial services industry seems to enjoy an evergreen and open marketing budget when it comes to “educating” the public on money issues. , equity credit , debt and the economy. Frankly, I cringe every time I hear the alleged facts and advice of conventional financial wisdom replete with critical contextual omissions. The so-called objective facts about money and the economy are half-truths at best when you are not informed of the big picture.
As defined, and in this case, post-truth is conventional financial facts and advice that simply reinforces existing misbeliefs, while appealing to emotions (Chase Freedom, using credit to pay for a wedding, earning rewards, etc.) .). Self-preservation and the need for growth is the name of the game in financial services when it comes to shaping the scope of monetary facts that are passed on to the “consumer.” What is in their best interest is ultimately not their concern, as is the case with all for-profit entities.
Buyers beware.
I am not saying that industry professionals are evil and persecute you. You are welcome. Probably most advisors, consultants, bankers, traders, etc. They mean well, but unknowingly spread expensive financial advice that is no longer relevant to the economic times we live in and is often based on incomplete data, in my opinion. They suffer from the same limited knowledge base as everyone else through their industry education and training.
After meeting R. Buckminister Fuller, reading his book, Critical path, and then co-producing the last leg of his speaking tour in 1983, my eyes were opened. There was no going back. I needed to delve into the history of monetary issues.
Post-truth is not a new concept. For me, it began in 2002 when I set out on my journey to review common knowledge about money, wealth, and the economy. It’s been an uphill battle ever since. Perhaps, one by one, people will discover the merits of a different way of thinking, earning, saving, spending, and investing money. Perhaps the word will spread to help give more people the chance to experience financial relief and wealth building by leveraging a solid, out-of-the-box personal finance approach.