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Dumbing down America

PostPosted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 9:37 am
by Rusty
Went to a street party Sunday; saw this on the counter when I stopped at an outdoor stall to get a beer:
How To Make Change.jpg
How To Make Change.jpg (109.77 KiB) Viewed 1079 times

We have all seen teenagers struggling at fast food counters when silver change is involved. I never thought somebody would see this need when all you are dealing with are whole numbers.

Rusty

Re: Dumbing down America

PostPosted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 4:19 am
by jlwilm
Rusty,

Sadly, the same problem here also, and not just teenagers. And, if you want to really blow their minds, try offering them a coin or two to cut down on the amount of coin they have to give you back and then watch the confused look spread.

Re: Dumbing down America

PostPosted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 10:48 am
by mtbspike
Oh dear...

I was helping out in a friend's shop awhile ago (in Canada) and a teen needed to make half an arrangement. She asked me what was half of 24. When I told her right away, she said, "Wow, so fast." :shock:

Courtney

Re: Dumbing down America

PostPosted: Tue Jun 11, 2013 11:32 am
by Rusty
I'm glad you are fast, Courtney. Good to see that university time wasn't wasted :toast:

They've made cash registers really "automatic" now. I think most of the fast food places now have screens with pictures of the items on the menu. Punch the item, punch the payment, the screen tells the cashier how much change to deliver.

If my bill is, say, $4.35, and I'm fast enough to show that I have a five dollar bill AND a quarter and dime, there's usually no problem. But if s/he sees the five and punches it in, and then I say, "Oh, here, I've got some silver", that's when you get the deer in the headlights look.

The machine has said to give me 65ยข and now I've screwed up the whole routine.

Oh well.....

Rusty

Re: Dumbing down America

PostPosted: Wed Jun 12, 2013 7:32 am
by tennie
This is really nothing new...I was in junior high (or before) when my dad would call me in to work when someone didn't show up. The old Kresge dollar store with the cash registers that had keys you had to push to get the price in...of course they couldn't calculate change! Dad always said he preferred having me work as I could count change from about 3rd grade on....his high school grad workers had problems with that!

So sad that even whole numbers cause problems. Thankfully my kids made it through school with good math skills...hopefully the grands did (will) also.

Hoping to get back on more regularly soon!

Re: Dumbing down America

PostPosted: Thu Jun 13, 2013 1:58 am
by ladybug
That just scares me! But oh so true.