Old habits die hard...

As a twentysomething living in the 21st century I don't think that I am alone in feeling that understanding our economy is quite the challenge. Today I sat through a meeting at work about how the economy is effecting the local and global marketplace. An abundance of terms were thrown at us that were not explained well (in my eyes). Okay, obviously the market is in the shitter right now. But there has got to be a way to explain exactly what is going on to people who didn't get their Bachelor's Degree in Finance or spent a huge chunk of their careers at the Chicago Board of Trade or on Wall Street.
From my understanding, lack of information is one of the major problems contributing to the bailout. Information is power, and apparantly what the public doesn't know can get them into deep financial dispair. I don't plan on purchasing a home withing the next two years (I may need to wait at least 10 years at this rate) but I now know that in order to do so I need to be heavily advised on terms like "credit freeze" and "short sale," etc.
I also think that it's important to understand the terms of the bailout passed last week and what we should expect, as the future leaders of this country, to do in order to change our spending habits so that this NEVER happens again. I do not want my children reaping what we have sewn. I want my children to be able to save the money they earn, understand how credit history effects getting a loan for college, how to balance a check book, and how to invest wisely. Even I still want to be able to get a loan for grad school! This will never happen unless we try to open our eyes as Generation Y. There are some people in this country that need to be educated as though they were a 5 year old, on how the economy and the global marketplace works. Taking econ in high school is one thing. Knowing the basics is important. But it seems like each year requires re-education about the current marketplace.
The world has become greedier and more ambitious with money or money-making. Generation Y is developing habits set by our current example-setters (our parents, our leaders, etc.). We are told from a young age to follow our dreams. At some point in time, our dreams became unfathomable monstrosities of evil. The things that matter the most to us are things that we don't need. America is an incredible country and an entreprenurial powerhouse. It was founded upon that basis. In 10 years time I hope to maintain that statement. But I fear that the one thing to keep us down is this continuous cycle of bad habits.