Great post. I think at the end of the day ultimate responsibility lies with the individual. However, like you said marketing and advertising are so persuasive now I sometime question whether that is still actually true.

I recall reading an article ages ago that if everyone was frugal and money smart, our current economy would completely tank, as so many industries rely on unnecessary discretionary spending....

I definitely saw this in Australia. During the GFC our government gave low income earners $1000 straight to their bank account, and asked us as a country to spend to help starve off a local recession. They were actually encouraging somewhat wasteful spending... And you know what? It actually did worked.

I know there are a lot of economist that advocate trickle down economics.... but quite frankly it appears more often than not that they have conflicting interests for voicing such a opinion.

All I know is that if you give poor people money and tax cuts they will more likely spend it, and this wealth will circulate within the economy, instead of being damned up somewhere.

What I am trying to say is yes, we should learn to manage finances better. Once we got that downpat, we need to start seeing our money as votes, and start activately voting for businesses that will actually better our communities and have a fairly distribution of wealth.

Sorry if this sounds like a rant. Its been on my mind a bit. Again great post, resteemed and followed :)