There are two key themes to the Financial Brainwashing of Americans and they have been growing for well over 100 years.

• The first is that Home Ownership is a key component of the American Dream. The majority of Americans own their home.
• The second is that stock ownership is the best asset class to achieve wealth. The majority of Americans own stocks.

Sadly, this brainwashing has gotten us to the point where we expect that these must be true. And that we must do everything we can to preserve them and to make sure that they remain true.

I suspect most Americans reading this feel entitled to these beliefs and more importantly, entitled to the assumption that housing prices will always increase over the long term and that stocks will always seek out new record highs. Any short term drop is just that - short term. And that once things are worked out, we will recover these losses over the years.

I suspect that if we suspended these beliefs, many Americans would have a hard time knowing what to do. It would scramble our social systems, our political systems and our economic systems.

We are now hostage to the financial brainwashing. Our politicians are doing everything they can to keep it going. A decline in housing? Oh no! We must avoid that at all costs. A decline in stocks? Oh no! We must avoid that at all costs.

It’s a given ….right? Of course we would do those things. What else can we do?