New Low

I rented a movie from Blockbuster the other night. What I rented is not important - not relevant to the story. The total for the rental came to $3.24. I handed the young man behind the counter a five dollar bill to cover the cost. He hit the button to put the money in the register. But before he was able to do so, his coworker asked him a question. Apparently, this distracted him so much that when he turned back to the register, he had to use a calculator to figure out how much change to give me back. From a five dollar bill, for a cost of $3.24.

Now, I can give him the benefit of the doubt. It was about a quarter after nine at a movie rental store on a Saturday night. Maybe he was tired... I prefer this explanation to thinking that this young man - maybe still in high school but I doubt it - can't mentally figure out the change due without the register telling him. Let's look at how easy this mental process would be, shall we?

Okay, bill is $3.24. Customer hands you $5.00. Round the bill to 3 and a quarter. Add 75 cents to make the total $4. That means you need $1.75 in change. Then add back in the 1 cent you rounded the bill up by. Change is $1.76.

It probably took me longer to type that up then it would take to mentally work through this. If we as a society cannot process simple math for a transaction like this, how in the heck are we suppose to fix the economy?

I don't mean to sound like an old geezer but if this is the future of our nation, I weep.