Is the world more stupid than 10 years ago?
 

Is it just me? Are "people" getting more useless and more stupid as the years go on. I am by no means a rocket scientist or professor material, but I find everywhere I go in this great country of mine ( GB ) "people" are incapable of the most straight forward tasks :confused1:

I sent the wife out to fill up a jerry can with petrol as she was going to town. For some reason she was unable to close the lid on correctly?? She asked 3 people ( all blokes ) to help her close it properly. None could work it out? So in the end the cashier said she could leave it in the shop - 20ltrs un-sealed can :eek3:

She came home and sent me down immediately to sort it out.

All that was wrong was the pin that locks the cap on was in the wrong place stopping the cap from closing correctly VERY obviously in the way ??? I was stunned ! WTF ? My wife has been trained in jerry can usage, I gave her the extra intensive course. But I wonder what will become of the three grown men, who will train them? How will they cope?

There is a list of stuff which I have seen and heard and continue to see and hear every day of the week which is now causing me to stand still and stare, with my jaw getting even lower each time. It's starting to make me look like a weirdo. Am I "gifted" being able to open and close jerry cans? Or are people just too lazy to learn to do stuff? Actually I think Jamie Oliver has recently got into trouble for saying the same about his fellow countrymen/women

I do still think we are a great country and do some great stuff, but sadly I think it is done by a lot fewer people. I think the turning point was in a supermarket a few years back when I saw grated cheese in a bag for sale sale. It makes me angry ! :taz:

Its probably a worldwide thing, as specialisation and technology have made things harder to fix and find someone who can fix it. I doubt that schools even teach the logic behind most maths/trig nowadays - I really admire the engineers in the 19th Century who built things without cadcam, calculators and even slide rules.

A few years ago I was a supermarket and the bill came to exactly $100, I handed over a $100 bill. The cashier then rang for assistance as the till did not show her how much change she should give me after keying in the $100.

The problem solving skill
 

Noticed how much a plumber cost these days? A leaking tap washer can lead to replacement of the tap - cheaper!

Problems solvers cost a lot more than pHds ... And the cost of new goods means less people are fixing stuff - too expensive to repair so throw it away.

The use of google to solve problems leads to a lack of developing the problem solving skill... lack of use of any skill sees its regression.

In Australia its been in a downward spiral for years.

15 years ago I had "words" with my daughters primary school about not picking up her spelling mistakes... their response was "it stifles their creativity".
Now I have a uni student who can't spell - and can't rely on spellchecker because she simply doesn't know which is the correct version.

If the schools stopped continually testing our kids (NAPLAN) and actually started teaching our kids - we'd have a fighting chance.

But alas - the gov't closes down the TAFEs and kids can no longer learn the basics of mechanics, carpentry, hairdressing, sewing etc

Don't worry, you be finding out just exactly how stupid she thinks you are in a short while :rofl:

I know what you mean about problem solving skills and we have a wide range of practical abilities within our household. The problem is that any "this doesn't work any more" issues that arise ultimately have to be resolved either by me or the dustman and when I emerged from under our Land Rover earlier this week after a day covered in brake fluid and gearbox oil fixing a problem for the MOT and then compared my wife's approach of buy a car and change it before the warranty runs out I wondered which of us was being the most sensible.

Sometimes the "I'll take it to bits and fix it" approach may not be the most cost effective in ways other than financial. I'll find out how cost effective shortly when I have to try and work out why my daughter's laptop is on the blink. Failure to fix it will "totally ruin her day" and she'll make her displeasure known vocally, whereas had I been a sort of ten thumbs bloke she'd have had to spend her own money getting it mended. Sometimes I think practical skills can be just a rod for your own back.

They are just starting to reverse this trend in the UK with the re-introduction of apprenticeships, the government has finally realised that you need people with manual skills in order for a country to function.

Is this their way of saying "we don't know how to spell either"?

It's the same here in the UK. That's the problem with league tables and the relentless focus on results at the exclusion of all else. Yes, obviously we all want the kids to do well in school, but focusing purely on relentless assessment regimes without allowing time for any real depth or breadth in the curriculum has the nock on effect that practicality or common sense often goes by the wayside. In order to pass exams, many kids have their work scaffolded to such an extent that when it comes down to real problem solving, they don't know where to start, as they've never encountered it before.

Recently I was shocked to find out my new son in law did not know how to change a wheel on his car. had to call out to rescue services, everything was there just no idea :(

Just a few days ago I dug out my old Holbrook lathe and cleaned it up thinking I would get rid of it. But just seeing it has made me decide to recommission it.

Most likely!
We set the bar high for doctors and lawyers but if the kids don't get the top marks they "just become a teacher".

So now we have mediocre teachers pumping out mediocre students.

seeing my 13 year old stepsons education has been a real, well, education!!

I truly cannot believe the crap they are taught in schools. The kids can't spell and can't add up. He doesn't know his times tables, AT 13!!! Some of the stuff the teachers tell them is beyond belief. The latest in a long list is the boys in his class were fretting because their teacher had told them coal will run out in 30 years and then civilisation will fall apart.

And don't even get me started on those children's rights lectures

BTW, I work in A&E and I can assure you, people are stupid!!

Are they more stupid than 10 years ago? I don't know. The Austin metro was the best selling car in the UK for many years. That perfectly demonstrates the level of reasoning and intelligence that was around then.

It's one reason I believe we should never have a referendum on anything, too many people are too stupid to understand the concepts involved.

One thing I do think though is that these days people expect other people to look after them and provide all the answers. People seem incapable of taking responsibility for themselves or their actions.

I don't think people are more stupid than before but due to population growth, there are certainly more stupid people around doh
I do think people are being dumbed down by various organisations but sadly as these people become parents too, standard life-skills are becoming a rarity.

Don't bother with reading a map - use a GPS
Don't bother learning how to cook - buy a pre-prepared meal
Don't bother learning a language - everyone speaks English, just talk louder!
Don't bother looking when crossing a road after all, the driver will have to stop or go to jail!
Don't bother getting a job - the state will give you money to stay at home
...... :censored:

and breathe....

controversially, as the scrotes in the pool at the bottom of society also tend to breed like rabbits, is the pool of scrotes getting bigger and bigger?

Although of course I accept other people have large families, some scrotes are actually quite clever and rather a lot of the supposedly educated middle classes are extraordinarily stupid!!

That's the plot of Idiocracy.

Quite a few obsolete skills getting a mention here IMHO. How many here could;

Use acetylene lighting?
Start something with hot bulb ignition?
Drive a vehicle with a crash box?

Some downtown abbey-esque chauffeur thinks you are all a bunch of namby pamby sprogs. The OP's jerry can is not current standard BTW, or it would be plastic and screw cap.

Some of the other skills are of course timeless and while I can't spell for toffee ( i'm 38 and my teachers were hippy wastrel s who wanted me to dance like a flower man), I at least know this and use the checker carefully. My education started after university which is mad.

Andy

Then it wouldn't be a jerry can:smartass:


define 'standard'. Metal cans are permitted (and sold widely and still used by the military) providing they have the appropriate stickerage. It's just some garages won't let you fill them.

More stupid ,well i Don't know.
 

I'm thinking yes people these days lack practical skill's ,something i'm good at and have earn't my living from (workshop manager on a large cotton/grain farm)
One thing i can say is to watch the young use computers etc is like they were born with the knowledge build in unlike myself who has had to acquire these skill's.
The lack of understanding of how machines work has lead to people being ripped off .the other day i visited with my mother looked at the back sliding door dragging ,mum said yes we have had someone look at it and we have to replace the whole door $600 .i took a look at it decided it needed new rollers ,went to the hardware shop purchased new rollers ,fitted to the door ,$35 latter door fixed.
My point is always do your own homework .

Hmm. If four different grown adults couldn't figure how to screw tight the cap on the jerry can, perhaps it wasn't quite as simple as you may think...

Not a screw cap, it's curved levers on the moving hinge that cam the seal down. The design is this way so squadies didn't lose the cap or cross the thread. All part of the improvement over the metal flimsies used up until the 1940's. The disadvantage is that the hinge slips so the levers won't start. You need to pull it open and start again a counter intuitive action and why the plastic replacements went back to screw thread. Joe public is expected to use one every 10 years, no training required where as the Afrika Korps were a bit more frequent.

IT makes back street mechanics look like saints. I remember sales reps bringing lap tops back to the office with claims the screen had gone. Tales of coloured boxes bouncing round. Fear of viruses. All gone after a good charge and restart though. The IT swines changed the screen savers to big red letters saying DANGER.

Andy

The style of can described by Andy above (with the cam style closure) is the original Jerry can design, and the only one that can be truly called a jerry can. They were designed by, and used by, the Afrika Corps in WW2. They were prized bounty for the British who called them Jerry cans after their slang term for the Germans. They were so highly prized because the design was significantly better than the Allies screw top cans which leaked and lacked robustness in the harsh desert environment

Many years ago, I showed my wife how to open and close the top of a Jerry Can I have, she was amazed (then) how simple it was, and couldn't understand why all cans are not like this...

Is the world getting dumber? Absolutely, but what do you expect when everything is engineered to be as simple as possible to minimize risks. The issue I have with it is that people are no longer embarrassed about it and as a result lose the motivation to use their brains.

The biggest annoyance Ive got is the lack of knowledge of basic geography. This Canadian girl couldn't tell me which direction she used to live from Calgary. She did know it was in Alberta and between 1.5 and 2 hours drive. Her excuse was that she was never good at geology!!! And that wasn't me making a typo. She wasn't even embarrassed about it.

I was looking for a classic video of the chaser guys going through the streets of the US with a world map, but can't find it. There are a few others though. This is just as bad here in Australia.

Chasers : War on Everything -Americans - YouTube

Geography Lesson for Americans - YouTube

I handed one of mine, open, to my wife today and gave her the back story. That scared her! However, having never seen one before, she had mastered the sliding hinge and closed it in under a minute. She's OK with mechanical stuff, but not particularly practical so those people must have been well down the scale!

Cheers

Nigel in NZ