Americans think inflation is higher than official numbers

[benjamen]

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/poll-americans-think-inflation-way-195300491.html

"A new Business Insider-SurveyMonkey Audience poll has found that Americans know shockingly little about the budget, federal deficits and other major economic indicators."

"Remember, in the real world, inflation is low — 1.5% so far in 2013."

"...dropping the top and bottom 5% of answers from the survey, you're still left with an average response of 9%, six times the actual rate of inflation."

 

[pmbug]

lol. Folks know their groceries if little else.

 

[Jay]

I am not surrounded by advanced thinkers. They called me to register seven when I had a bunch of flowers marked down to ask me what 50% of ten dollars was.

 

[ancona]

I am not surrounded by advanced thinkers. They called me to register seven when I had a bunch of flowers marked down to ask me what 50% of ten dollars was.

That is the American Tragedy my friend. We had a little power outage near WalMart one afternoon. I decided to stop in to Aldis to get some stuff and the cashier said, "All transactions need to be in cash".

So.....OK, I had cash and proceeded to do a little shopping. When I got to my turn in line, I had something like $32.15 so I gave her 42.15, expecting to get a single bill back for change.

She looked at me like I was from outer space. Her little chipmunk sized brain simply could not compute that she owed me 10 bucks, instead insisting that I was owed $7.85. I went back and forth with this idiot for five minutes until she called a manager over. The fucking manager agreed with her!!

I said OK, fine. I abandoned my stuff on the counter, took my $42.15 and left. I was furious. I called regional headquarters for Aldis and told them the story and said if you do not believe me then interview these idiots. Well, they did. About two weeks later I got a phone call from some guy at corporate who apologized profusely to me and assured me that the situation would ind3eed be remedied, and went on further to say that this was endemic and that kids these days, in fact even their adult employees, could not do simple math.

Another week went by and I got a letter from them on a sort of generic form, but included was a 100$ Aldis gift card and a short hand-written note explaining how my complaint was appreciated and that as a result, all employees would be required to demonstrate proficiency in basic math before beginning work as cashiers [at least in my region of Central Florida].:judge:

While I was initially pretty happy about the hundred bucks in free groceries, I couldn't help but feel a little bit disturbed that a twenty something adult couldn't cipher a simple solution to second grade math. What disturbed me even more was the "supervisor" that couldn't do it either.

What a fucking tragedy.

All of it made me wonder just what the hell happens to our society, which has become so completely reliant on electronics to perform all of our mundane tasks, like simple math, when the lights do finally go out?

 

[pmbug]

...
All of it made me wonder just what the hell happens to our society, which has become so completely reliant on electronics to perform all of our mundane tasks, like simple math, when the lights do finally go out?

Ever read Twain's Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court? Well, it'll pretty much be the opposite of that.

 

[DCFusor]

Tee-hee. Just got back from shopping. Today is "old fart" day at the grocery store, where we get 5% off everything. Lots of people there. I hold up a can of Campbell's chicken noodle - now $1.79 for 10.5 oz of crap and ask who else remembers when it was 25c and 12 oz.
(note, it's still about the cheapest - some of them are now $2.79/can)

Should have kept my mouth shut, it almost started a riot. Yes, people are noticing - big time, and we old farts vote.

 

[Jay]

Tee-hee. Just got back from shopping. Today is "old fart" day at the grocery store, where we get 5% off everything. Lots of people there. I hold up a can of Campbell's chicken noodle - now $1.79 for 10.5 oz of crap and ask who else remembers when it was 25c and 12 oz.
(note, it's still about the cheapest - some of them are now $2.79/can)

Should have kept my mouth shut, it almost started a riot. Yes, people are noticing - big time, and we old farts vote.

I work produce, and it wasn't very long ago that corn was eight ears for a dollar (before we started burning our food in our gas tanks). Now you're lucky to get it for .50 cents an ear.

 

[11C1P]

The thing is maybe 3013 is only up 1 1/2% in a given year, it's the cumulative amount over several years. Not to mention they usually average out those numbers over a broad range, so overall it might not be bad, but I know groceries the last few years are nuts, and when you have 4 kids, it really adds up. While gas maybe isn't as bad as it was a little while ago, I still can't afford to visit my BOL as much as I used to when gas was still around $2/gallon, it gets just too damn expensive. So while I might still squeal about gas prices someone can say I'm a fool cause gas is coming down, but when I bought my other property gas was a bit under $2/gal and stayed well under $3/gal for the first couple years I had it, but the last several years gas has been between $3-$4+ and so even though overall inflation and gas prices might be flat right now, my take home pay didn't skyrocket anywhere near as much as gas and groceries have the last several years.

 

[11C1P]

That is the American Tragedy my friend. We had a little power outage near WalMart one afternoon. I decided to stop in to Aldis to get some stuff and the cashier said, "All transactions need to be in cash".

So.....OK, I had cash and proceeded to do a little shopping. When I got to my turn in line, I had something like $32.15 so I gave her 42.15, expecting to get a single bill back for change.

She looked at me like I was from outer space. Her little chipmunk sized brain simply could not compute that she owed me 10 bucks, instead insisting that I was owed $7.85. I went back and forth with this idiot for five minutes until she called a manager over. The fucking manager agreed with her!!

I said OK, fine. I abandoned my stuff on the counter, took my $42.15 and left. I was furious. I called regional headquarters for Aldis and told them the story and said if you do not believe me then interview these idiots. Well, they did. About two weeks later I got a phone call from some guy at corporate who apologized profusely to me and assured me that the situation would ind3eed be remedied, and went on further to say that this was endemic and that kids these days, in fact even their adult employees, could not do simple math.

Another week went by and I got a letter from them on a sort of generic form, but included was a 100$ Aldis gift card and a short hand-written note explaining how my complaint was appreciated and that as a result, all employees would be required to demonstrate proficiency in basic math before beginning work as cashiers [at least in my region of Central Florida].:judge:

While I was initially pretty happy about the hundred bucks in free groceries, I couldn't help but feel a little bit disturbed that a twenty something adult couldn't cipher a simple solution to second grade math. What disturbed me even more was the "supervisor" that couldn't do it either.

What a fucking tragedy.

All of it made me wonder just what the hell happens to our society, which has become so completely reliant on electronics to perform all of our mundane tasks, like simple math, when the lights do finally go out?

Math be hard.

 

[11C1P]

Here's the check he finally sent verizon when no one there understood the difference between a dollar and a cent.

 

[pmbug]

US adults are dumber than the average human
...
Researchers tested about 166,000 people ages 16 to 65 in more than 20 countries and subnational regions. The test was developed and released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is made up of mostly industrialized member countries. The Education Department’s Center for Education Statistics participated.
...
Among the other findings:

-Americans scored toward the bottom in the category of problem solving in a technology rich environment. The top five scores in the areas were from Japan, Finland, Australia, Sweden and Norway, while the US score was on par with England, Estonia, Ireland and Poland. In nearly all countries, at least 10 percent of adults lacked the most basic of computer skills such as using a mouse.

-Japanese and Dutch adults who were ages 25 to 34 and only completed high school easily outperformed Italian or Spanish university graduates of the same age.
...
This test could suggest students leaving high school without certain basic skills aren’t obtaining them later on the job or in an education program.
...

http://nypost.com/2013/10/08/us-adults-are-dumber-than-the-average-human/