[wfjackson]

I wish the government or charities helped these people out by educating them about the various ways they can be frugal and the typical ways they get fleeced by holding free seminars and giving out flyers/books.

Perhaps the tips in Reddit's /r/frugal can be made into a book and freely distributed to such people?

There's an immense amount of money being spent on such folks, much of it from taxpayer dollars and it still isn't very effective at lifting them from the vicious cycle of poverty.

[josu]

Something like these?

http://www.mymoney.gov

http://www.pfeg.org/

http://www.financialliteracy.gov.au/

http://www.condusef.gob.mx/Revista/index.php/usuario-intelig...

http://www.finanzasparatodos.es/

Most of the governments have financial education programs in place. They just don't seem to be that effective. My guess is that the answer to this has to come from the private sector. A company that somehow creates the incentives for these people to save instead of borrowing.

[DubiousPusher]

>There's an immense amount of money being spent on such folks

I think you need to substantiate this claim.