Young Professionals' Career Choices, Geopolitics, and Financial Literacy Reform

Key Quotes

"So for me, I grew up in Kentucky and ended up moving to LA immediately after I graduated in 2019. So I chose the big city career, but then the pandemic hit. I think that's one part of it, that you don't know what's going to happen. You have to optimize for what you want. If you want to buy a house right away, it's not the smart thing to move immediately to a big city. It's just not going to happen unless you have generational wealth."

Kyla Scanlon explains that prioritizing a big city career immediately after graduation, while seemingly offering more opportunity, may not align with immediate financial goals like homeownership. Scanlon highlights that external events, like the pandemic, can disrupt plans and that significant wealth is often required to achieve certain financial milestones in expensive urban areas.

"My view is that as a general rule, you should optimize everything for your career. Your career and establishing value in the workplace, establishing your personal value in the marketplace, that to me is the most important number one thing. It's important at that moment in time in your life because, and Scott often talks about this, those first 10 to 15 years kind of set the trajectory for what your life is going to look like."

Ed Elson advises young professionals to prioritize their career development in the early stages of their working lives. Elson emphasizes that establishing personal and professional value is paramount, as the initial 10-15 years of a career significantly influence its long-term trajectory.

"There's something called Baumol's cost disease. Have you heard about this? ... We've gotten really productive as a country over the past several decades. We've gotten really good at producing goods cheaply because we did a lot of international trade, and so goods have gotten a lot cheaper because we've gotten more productive at producing them. But it's much harder to get productive with services. You can't really automate a physician, but you can automate a car factory."

Kyla Scanlon introduces Baumol's cost disease to explain economic shifts, noting that while productivity gains have made goods cheaper, services remain difficult to automate and thus become relatively more expensive. Scanlon uses the example of automating a car factory versus a physician to illustrate this concept.

"The most important point, from the Fed, which found that wages for workers in big cities rise faster with experience compared to workers in small cities. I feel like that's the most important point, which is you shouldn't be basing your understanding of your life based on your current earnings as a 24-year-old, 25-year-old, because it's going to change dramatically over time."

Ed Elson highlights a Federal Reserve finding that wages for workers in large cities increase more rapidly with experience than those in smaller cities. Elson uses this data to argue that young professionals should not base their life decisions on current earnings, as their income potential is likely to grow significantly over time, especially in urban environments.

"I think the way that the US is thinking about this is underneath the lens of the Monroe Doctrine. Trump released this national security strategy document in November 2025 that talked about how the US wants to be the dominant power in the Western Hemisphere. That's what we saw with the action in Venezuela. That's why he's threatened Cuba, he's threatened Colombia, he's threatened Mexico, he's threatened Iran, he's threatened Canada."

Kyla Scanlon analyzes the US approach to Greenland through the framework of the Monroe Doctrine, referencing a national security strategy document that emphasizes US dominance in the Western Hemisphere. Scanlon connects this to actions and threats made towards various countries, suggesting a broader pattern of asserting regional power.

"I think what's really important about both personal finance and economics education is you kind of have to root it in what happens to the news. So if you have like a CPI report talking about inflation, you can talk about how the market reacts, how that's going to impact somebody's portfolio, and then talk about how the CPI data is collected."

Kyla Scanlon emphasizes the importance of connecting financial literacy and economics education to current events and news. Scanlon suggests using reports like the Consumer Price Index (CPI) on inflation as a practical example to explain market reactions, portfolio impacts, and data collection methods.

"I feel like part of it is you want it to be fun. You want to be interesting, and beyond that, you want to understand why it's relevant and why it matters, like why you should care. I feel like that's something that schools generally don't do a great job of because you and I don't really know how schools work, but I assume you get the curriculum, 'This is what you're supposed to teach, here's the content, okay, go teach it.'"

Ed Elson argues that educational institutions often fail to make financial literacy engaging and relevant for students. Elson suggests that a curriculum-driven approach, without emphasizing the personal importance and practical application of the subject matter, hinders student interest and understanding.