Years ago my wife and I moved to a cash only system for day-to-day expenses and after my son was born I started stuffing quarters into a piggy bank for him so when I go to the store any quarters I get back go into the piggy.

Whenever I purchase something and if I have sufficient small change I will try to make an extra quarter out of thin air. For example, if I am buying something for $4.28 and if I have three pennies I will hand them over (plus the five dollars) to get three quarters back rather then two quarters, two dimes, and two pennies.

You should see some of these mouth breathers attempt to process what I am doing. The number of times I have to tell them to give me 'X' quarters back tells me exactly how much trouble this nation is in. No wonder they want everything to be free, they don’t know how to pay for anything unless it involves swiping those magic plastic cards with magnetic strips or RFID chips (or waving phones in front of scanners now).

"We'll pay you $15/hour, if you promise to never reproduce."

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Originally posted by sigmonkey:

I have an account at the First Citywide Change Bank...

Clicked on link. Got message:

quote:

Sorry, we can't play this video in its intended experience because we're unable to load the accompanying message from our sponsors.

If you are using ad-blocking software, please disable it and try loading the page again.

I guess it's their website, their rules, but I'm not going to download a whole bunch of ads.

I just gave a girl $24 for something that cost $13.70. She pulls out six bucks then tries hand it to me until I pointed out the four I gave her. She goes, “oh, did you want a ten dollar bill?”

Bill was $15.50 I give her a twenty and 2 quarters. Deer-in-the-headlights look and reaches for a calculator. I said, "Just give me a five back." She did but still had no idea why.

With smart phones, I've found people have lost all basic skills of everything from simple math to spelling. It really isn't all that hard.

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Originally posted by NavyAgShooter:
"We'll pay you $15/hour, if you promise to never reproduce."

I could go for that.

The money saved in not having to support them with our tax dollars for multiple children would more than be worth $15/hour.

There was a time when cash registers did not calculate change.

If you were a cashier (1968-1972 for me, part time at Publix and J C Penney's), you learned to do compliments.

If I owe $2.73, I can hand the clerk a ten and tell them its $7.27 in change faster than they can scan the bar code on the item.

They look at me astounded, or suspicious.

I feel like Penn & Teller.

But, to be fair, this kind of knowledge or ignorance about task has changed as long as humans have had changing technology.

It'd take me days to chip out a good obsidian spear point that any good stone age armorer could produce in a few minutes.

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Originally posted by RichardC:

you learned to do compliments.

"My, but you are looking particularly nice today!"

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Originally posted by V-Tail:
Want more fun? Buy something that is, for example, $4.17. Hand the cashier a five dollar bill, a dime, a nickel, and two pennies.

Bet if you do that at a Chk-Fil-A the gal will smile and hand you a crisp new 1 dollar bill. There are times when I think Chik-Fil-A does their hiring from an Alternate Universe.

Also lost is the art of counting back the change to the customer. Now just a pile of crumbled bills wrapped around the loose change.

So I'm guessing basic math skills are no longer taught in K-12 anymore?