I’m just an average participant in capitalism. I know almost nothing about economics, except its harsh reality. I know nearly as much about its various theories, or how to make usable sense of it all.

Neither do those in government, evident by our recent downward spiral into national depression over a runaway recession, and continued depression over such a painfully slow recovery. The guy who knew all, Alan Greenspan, now spends time on the book circuit, deriving an income by explaining how he, master of the “masters of the universe,” missed the big picture by a mile.

Since “Too Big to Fail” clobbered my very modest “investment strategy,” I have taken far more interest in obtaining some financial literacy about how we got from the “Bubble” to now.

Unlike Greenspan, I have never had study of the workings of finance. Twelve years of public schooling somehow never touched on the subject. We learned how to open a savings account — even went to the bank to make the first deposit — when in grade school, but that was it. “Higher” education contributed not a smidgen more preparation for a life influenced by money at about every turn. It’s almost as if the rules of the game were purposely being concealed in preparing us for a lifetime of consumerism.

How my wife and I managed to purchase a house is still a complete mystery. Thank goodness for credit unions.

Recently, a mailed package arrived extolling “Shipped for free — Guaranteed to last.” Sounds good. Whereas, “Shipping and guarantee costs already included in your purchase price” doesn’t have the same ring. “Free” always sounds a better value. Why something in an actual store can cost the same as shopping online baffles me. What’s with those additional shipping and handling costs, when the same product, shipped and handled, waits in-store without that fee? Separately, to physically go to a ”flagship store” to find that the product sought is only available online, and then electronically order it in-store, is another odd shopping experience. But, being ordered in-store, shipping is ….free, so no issue.

Maine workers are paid considerably less than those in many other states. Yet, when they purchase something they often pay the same as that priced in a much better economic environment. The beauty of McDonald’s or Home Depot is that their prices remain relatively constant regardless of location. Unlike days of old, local economies have been all but taken out of the picture. Having done away with smaller competitors, Staples’s own local presence may well be eliminated itself, by its own online competition. We’ll still have to buy a lifetime’s worth of paper clips at one time, but UPS will gladly carbon footprint them to our individual residence. The Internet is the ultimate Big Box up in the Cloud. Even Al Gore likely shops this way, so it’s OK. It’s virtually unavoidable, so no avoidable eco-issues here.

All this price universality, earthbound or virtual, is just great for those enjoying regional economies with high customer incomes, but we others are sort of short changed, so to speak.

Prices everywhere keep going up, unstoppable as the passage of time. Whatever the economics, that’s how it seems. Fuel is now the third top U.S. export, yet the price at the pump doesn’t come down. Go figure. The dollar shrinks and prices, instead of dropping to encourage spending, leap higher still. The answer to consumer falloff is to charge even more from those that continue purchasing already inflated products. What the market will bear seems to have no limit as long as some market remains, until it doesn’t. .

Maybe a fundamental problem is that our economy is manned by far too many self taught entrepreneurs. I worked for a very successful company that for years had no idea what its profitability would be until year’s end, and it did fine. Then it got fully spreadsheeted, electronically cost calculated to the max, until it almost went out of business. When we would gather as a company, to hear the annual bad news regarding our 401K performance, it was always apparent that not even the owners, or CFO, knew much more than the rank and file. All eyes would glaze over.

How can so much of America be so ignorant of the workings of economics and finance when money is our national be all and end all? It’s like eating without understanding, or caring, where food comes from. It’s like professing belief in the Bible and Constitution, when you have never actually read either beginning to end.

So, imagine my surprise in hearing that there is a new initiative called the President’s Advisory Council on Financial Capability for Young Americans. Its goal is to embed financial literacy into the core curriculum of our public schools. What an amazingly long overdue concept.

With such a farsighted investment in functional economic awareness, maybe our economic future will finally mature and avoid having to repeatedly learn the same fickle trickle-down generational lessons over and over again.

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Gary Anderson is a resident of Bath.