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New math to the rescue?

August 4th, 2012 at 11:34 pm

I was out at the yard sales this morning, and they were few and far between for the second weekend in a row. What's up with that? Is there something going on I don't know about? I found things at only one sale on my normal route, and only for $.50, so as I ended my normal loop very early I decided to go onward.

On the way to a flea market I heard about for the first time, I stopped at an "estate sale". I put that in quotes as while they were selling most everything in the house, the people selling it didn't strike me as the professional type. Not bad pricing, just not very organized to say the least.

As I'm going through the place I hear that everything is now 1/2 off the marked prices. My guess was this was a one day sale and they were basing this discount on the time of day(?).

After hearing this, I decide to get a few things I had passed previously. One was old pyrex custard cups. They were marked as 2 for $1 and I decided to get 4 of them. As I go to pay the woman at the table looks at the price on the cups and says "hmmm... 2 for a dollar. Ok, half price would be 4 for $.50" I didn't say anything, but in my mind I went "Huh?".

I wasn't major extra money saved, but still... can't people do basic math anymore?

6 Responses to “New math to the rescue?”

  1. Monkey Mama Says:
    1344127522

    No - people can not do basic math any more - it's pretty scary out there.

  2. Monkey Mama Says:
    1344127825

    The best? Someone told my dh that 1000 pennies was "100 dollars." She might have even said it was "$1,000." Something ludicrous like that. *Bangs Head* {This was in regards to planning a school fundraiser - but they'd make so much money collecting pennies!!}.

  3. Swimgirl Says:
    1344132923

    Shaking my head! Scary!

  4. Petunia in an OP Says:
    1344133734

    No, people cannot do basic math.

    This summer I played a board game involving "money" (Payday from the 1970's, if you're interested). Neither the other adult nor the older teen who were playing with me could calculate 10% of a dollar amount.

  5. rob62521 Says:
    1344196656

    And folks, it isn't going to get any better...making kids learn addition and subtraction facts is considered old fashioned and a waste of time...we are told to stick calculators in their hands!

  6. Jerry Says:
    1344197692

    Ugh. Well, looks like I will immediately make some times table flash cards for my daughters. It's true, though, there is no insurance that anyone can do basic math any more, even at the cash register. Just making change without the digital display leads to smoke from the ears sometimes, it seems.
    Jerry

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