Financial Literacy

Within the framework of the Economics Conference and the Education Section at the Goetheanum, Fionn Meier researches 'Financial Literacy for the 21st Century'.

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The question of taking responsibility for one's own finances has been a concern, especially for Benediktus Hardorp in his study of the significance of double-entry bookkeeping as an «instrument of the consciousness soul», and through the work of the Economics Conference at the Goetheanum (economics.goetheanum.org/literature). As an ‹ambassador for financial literacy› supported by several institutions and within the framework of a research project overseen by Christopher Houghton Budd (coordinator of the Economic Conference) and Florian Osswald (co-director of the Education Section), I am developing together with colleagues a concept ‹Financial Literacy for the 21st Century› as a contribution to today’s debates.

Nowadays, we live in a transition from objective to dematerialised money. Meaning what precisely? The idea of money as bookkeeping (ga 340) can serve as an orientation for understanding money as a mirror that allows one to recognize economic processes and shape them together.

Every human being comes to earth with an impulse to bring something new into the world. But an obstacle to this is the idea of selling one's work which prevents one from taking responsibility for one's own work, in turn a prerequisite for finding one's life's task. (GA 135, lecture of 21 February 1912). Everyone - whether employed or not - can use double-entry bookkeeping to awaken in oneself an awareness of one’s responsibility as an independent entrepreneur of the purpose and goal of one’s task.

Imagining the realization of an idea, right into its concrete finances by way of a financial plan, is an effort of will that is effective in the world and makes it possible to observe whether one is still on ‹course›.

Self-reflection, transparency, communication can also be learned in the field of finance as a social process. From a common overview of capital and ideas, capital can be brought into circulation in such a way that everyone’s ‹news› can come healthily into the world.

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