When the late

1 January 2006

When the late, great Freddie Mercury sang, "I want it all and I want it now", he articulated the anthem for this our consumer age. Getting and spending is our 24/7 obsession as we pursue the insatiable quest for the newest gadget, latest label and best bargain. Like Sisyphus we can never complete the mission, and shopping is now the national hobby. Witness IKEA on a Sunday, when whole families spend their precious leisure time in a windowless, crowded warehouse wheeling gargantuan trolleys (often containing nothing more than fractious infants) between bland room displays of cheap furniture before queuing to lunch in one of Dante's circles of Hell.

From the corner of our living room, clever marketing kindly informs us nightly of what it is we are missing in our lives, from yet another new sofa to the latest flavour ice cream. Huge supermarkets satisfy our every whim at any hour of the day or night, so that few of us ever stop now to ask if we actually need what the hidden persuaders have told us we all want.  We purchase items "because we're worth it", or because "it's not just ordinary food", and, in a world where judging objects has replaced objectivity of judgment, we have adopted the mantra, "I shop therefore I am".

We should not be unduly surprised then to learn that the Insolvency Service showed recently a 25% rise in the number of Britons declared bankrupt. We are £1.25 trillion in debt, with banks and building societies reporting a significant rise in legal proceedings. A "nation sleepwalking into a debt crisis" is how the Liberal Democrats' economics spokesman described the situation. With supermarket aisles promoting Christmas produce from mid October, and the plastic poised for overdrive, the result, as Micawber warned, will be misery.

Caught in this consumer pandemic are those young people at the start of a career, a university course, an independent life, a relationship. Expectations have changed irreparably from the halcyon days when a couple saved and waited for their home, and saw independence from parents as a distant dream. With Freddie, they want it all, and expect it now - mortgage, car, fully-fitted lives and the foreign holiday. They've studied those ubiquitous programmes changing rooms and selves, and have an image of what "home" has to mean. Items are desirable, acceptable, fashionable - but "affordable" rarely gets a mention, because companies could not be more accommodating with their offers of credit.  A major building society last week announced the intention to make mortgage availability five times that of a customer's salary, and another is likely to increase this to a staggering seven. The Shadow Chancellor rightly urges caution: borrowed money, he claims, is being built on borrowed time.  We are consumer junkies, our habit out of control. Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs) where only some of the debt is repaid, have risen 118% - but that unpaid amount has to be absorbed somewhere, presumably from those prudent enough to manage finance more carefully.

Unless those currently in school are made much more aware of financial matters, and the dangers of overspending, then we are destined for a serious financial meltdown.

So what is there to do?

Parents at home and teachers in school are not powerless to change all this. Money management is as much a key skill as literacy or ICT. But in reality it will take courage to refocus such a powerfully materialistic zeitgeist. Before Christmas obscene amounts will be spent on unnecessary, overpriced objects of desire, irrespective of disposable income. It's a brave parent who resists the relentless pressure and the commercial bullying. It's a brave child who says, "I won't be writing to Santa. I've got all I need."

In our schools, the curriculum must embrace personal finance as an important lifeskill, nurturing its development in as many imaginative ways as possible. There is little point acquiring qualifications which open doors to a college or a career, which provide access to a lifestyle, but then neglecting the skills necessary to avoid bankruptcy and homelessness. Young people need an opportunity to manage their own expenses from an early age - but one which is implemented firmly, without the easy-option of the ad hoc cash top-up from a harassed parent seeking a quiet life.  Let's talk openly in school about saving, interest rates, credit records and blacklists, APRs, mortgage pitfalls, debt collection. Let's build in role play for those senior pupils about to inherit instant university debts or to live independently on a starter salary. Let's include some real-life case studies of young earners whose debt has escalated out of control. We may find some brave enough to speak personally to the students. And let's be clear in the message: you might want it all but it can't all be now.

Schools might invite banks and building societies to work with their pupils too, enabling and encouraging their future customers to be more financially literate. We all have an urgent responsibility to help young consumers differentiate between want and need, between the cost of something and its real value in their lives.

 Education, whether it be in or out of a classroom, is rather like money: it produces high returns when long-term investment is managed well.

        Brenda Despontin     November 2006.      (875 words)