No Hope

[Iowa Dave]

Today I stopped in a convenience store in Columbia City, Indiana. I made a purchase that came to $2.49. I laid $2 on the counter and reached in my pocket where I had a lot of change. I handed the early 20s cashier a quarter, two dimes and 4 pennies. She gave me a perplexed apologetic look. She laid the coins on the counter and picked up a small calculator, she added up the value of my coins and said “you are correct right to the dime.” I told her thanks and she said “Come again.”
I was sad as I walked back to the Highlander.
Sad very sad. I felt sorry for her.
Iowa Dave

[WillyB]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Today I stopped in a convenience store in Columbia City, Indiana. I made a purchase that came to $2.48. I laid $2 on the counter and reached in my pocket where I had a lot of change. I handed the early 20s cashier a quarter, two dimes and 4 pennies. She gave me a perplexed apologetic look. She laid the coins on the counter and picked up a small calculator, she added up the value of my coins and said “you are correct right to the dime.” I told her thanks and she said “Come again.”
I was sad as I walked back to the Highlander.
Sad very sad. I felt sorry for her.
Iowa Dave

Sounds like my oldest brother. At 66 he's still has not found the understanding of math. Fortunately his wife is a human calculator. If not for her he would be living in a van down by the river.

[Civilguy]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Today I stopped in a convenience store in Columbia City, Indiana. I made a purchase that came to $2.48. I laid $2 on the counter and reached in my pocket where I had a lot of change. I handed the early 20s cashier a quarter, two dimes and 4 pennies. She gave me a perplexed apologetic look. She laid the coins on the counter and picked up a small calculator, she added up the value of my coins and said “you are correct right to the dime.” I told her thanks and she said “Come again.”
I was sad as I walked back to the Highlander.
Sad very sad. I felt sorry for her.
Iowa Dave

By your own account, you gave her an extra penny. She probably felt the same about you. But, cheer up; you were correct within a dime!

These stories about the "youth of today" have been going around since before Socrates time, when the kids were criticized for not being able to throw a spear straight.

If I ever start telling the stories of how deficient today's youth (supposedly) are, somebody please put me out of my misery, for I will clearly have lost all hope for humanity.

Meanwhile, the world keeps turning.

[Ooshkaboo]

Originally Posted by WillyB

Sounds like my oldest brother. At 66 he's still has not found the understanding of math. Fortunately his wife is a human calculator. If not for her he would be living in a van down by the river.

Hey now, I just spent closing in on 120k to pretty much live in a van down by the river…

[WillyB]

Originally Posted by Ooshkaboo

Hey now, I just spent closing in on 120k to pretty much live in a van down by the river…

You have to say "van down by the river" just like Chris Farley.

[Mike G]

Originally Posted by Civilguy

By your own account, you gave her an extra penny. She probably felt the same about you. But, cheer up; you were correct within a dime!

LOL. Poor Dave. Any time we point the finger at someone else, we have 4 fingers pointing back at ourselves.

[Iowa Dave]

I made a typo on my post because I wasn’t wearing my specs. It was $2.49 but I hit the 8. My working life interacting with customers is done. Just pointing out somwthjng I hadn’t seen before. In Guttenburg Iowa, they just closed a school because they couldn’t get any new teachers and were down to one returning teacher. They expected a new teacher to work for $30,000 a year. Imagine that. It was a Catholic Elementary School with about three dozen students.
Iowa Dave

[Mike Lewis]

Coincidentally, I was talking about this very subject today with my cousin, who is a middle-school teacher. She teaches 7th grade math. She said that some of the kids she has come into class without knowing how to make change. I told her it's not just the kids-- without a calculator or cash register to help, a lot of adult cashiers can't do it either.

[Civilguy]

All of my life I have been well above and below average, depending on what aspect of me you were talking about. It also changes with time and with the observers. It seems that's true of all of us in the main.

Every day I trust my life to people I never met. The people that designed and built and worked on those brakes on that car coming at me, and the stranger behind the wheel besides. I've had plenty of computers crash, but I haven't yet been in a plane that fell out of the sky. And when a plane does that, it's uncommon enough to make the news. So, in the main, things seem to be working pretty well overall.

Like it or not, our children are our future, so one can decide to hope and believe in those children, and by extension our future, or not. One thing's for sure, there's always plenty of anecdotal evidence to be found to support whatever a person chooses to believe.

[rubicon327]

Just want to point out that you never know the situation. My daughter has a rare genetic disorder that has affected her cognitive development. She struggles with math and reading. It would be a dream for her to have the privilege to work as a cashier and struggle with counting someone’s change. Not all disabilities are visible. On the other hand my son is three grade levels ahead in math with a special curriculum. I sometimes feel like I live in two worlds.

[John in Santa Cruz]

meanwhile, my contribution to 'youth of today' has his PhD in Geology, and got through more tons of university math than I ever did (I stopped after 2 years of Calculus). as a geologist he has published a bunch of papers, most of which I can barely understand......
https://scholar.google.com/citations...sortby=pubdate

[Dave Walter]

I wouldn't worry too much about the current generations not being able to count change the way us older folks learned to do. The world moves on and it is not a skill that is really needed anymore. How do you think the oldtimers felt who grew up knowing how to rub sticks together to start a fire and suddenly all of the younger generation were using matches?

[escape artist]

Originally Posted by Iowa Dave

Today I stopped in a convenience store in Columbia City, Indiana. I made a purchase that came to $2.49. I laid $2 on the counter and reached in my pocket where I had a lot of change. I handed the early 20s cashier a quarter, two dimes and 4 pennies. She gave me a perplexed apologetic look. She laid the coins on the counter and picked up a small calculator, she added up the value of my coins and said “you are correct right to the dime.” I told her thanks and she said “Come again.”
I was sad as I walked back to the Highlander.
Sad very sad. I felt sorry for her.
Iowa Dave

Hi: Iowa Dave... IMHO how do you know the calculator is correct if you can't do the math? Here in Canada our bills don't even start till you get to a fiver, and they're plastic!!! Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[Iowa Dave]

Originally Posted by escape artist

Hi: Iowa Dave... IMHO how do you know the calculator is correct if you can't do the math? Here in Canada our paper money doesn't even start till you get to a fiver. Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

I hear that. I showed a couple young people down here and told them they were called Loonies and Twonies and they would not believe me. It really got a lot easier to spend Canadian change down here after all the commemorative quarters came out.

[Escape_19]

Originally Posted by Dave Walter

I wouldn't worry too much about the current generations not being able to count change the way us older folks learned to do. The world moves on and it is not a skill that is really needed anymore. How do you think the oldtimers felt who grew up knowing how to rub sticks together to start a fire and suddenly all of the younger generation were using matches?

Say it isn't so...you can use matches to start a fire?

[MyronL]

I still didn't think, after all, the world wasn't going to hell. But then last week they closed Death Valley!

[Keith3]

Originally Posted by Dave Walter

I wouldn't worry too much about the current generations not being able to count change the way us older folks learned to do. The world moves on and it is not a skill that is really needed anymore. How do you think the oldtimers felt who grew up knowing how to rub sticks together to start a fire and suddenly all of the younger generation were using matches?

Yep. I have two degrees and regularly deal with highly educated professionals, but the last time I felt stupid was at my daughter’s high school when they were doing independent research presentations. The stuff those kids assumed I knew when they started talking to me was way over my head.

I’ve not worried much about the next generation since then.

[rbryan4]

Originally Posted by Dave Walter

I wouldn't worry too much about the current generations not being able to count change the way us older folks learned to do. The world moves on and it is not a skill that is really needed anymore. How do you think the oldtimers felt who grew up knowing how to rub sticks together to start a fire and suddenly all of the younger generation were using matches?

That's pretty much true, but if you're a cashier at a store that accepts cash, then counting change is very much a needed skill. Kind of restored my faith awhile back when I handed the cashier a $100 bill for a 40-something-dollar purchase, and he counted my change back to me old school, starting from the amount spent and counting to 100.

[Donna D.]

Originally Posted by rbryan4

That's pretty much true, but if you're a cashier at a store that accepts cash, then counting change is very much a needed skill. Kind of restored my faith awhile back when I handed the cashier a $100 bill for a 40-something-dollar purchase, and he counted my change back to me old school, starting from the amount spent and counting to 100.

Yep, far different than a cashier just loading up the palm of my hand with my change back. Counting back is unusual anymore.


Cash itself is going out of style. During the height of the pandemic a number of stores I shop had stopped accepting cash. Couldn't even buy wood at some of the Oregon State Parks... needed a credit/debit card.


There's still one restaurant I patronize that doesn't accept cash. BUT, their reason is they had been robbed too many times and wanted to stop putting their staff and customers in danger. I expect that's going to happen more and more as time goes on.

[Civilguy]

I don't normally carry much cash, but one time I used several large bills to make a purchase.

I commented to the cashier "I don't normally carry this much cash, but one of the kids paid me back for something".

He looked at me and just sighed. "Well, at least they pay you back!"