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Comment by jodoherty | Hacker News Reader

I think most people don't care about optimizing an extra $10 out of their weekly grocery run.

Probably a better example is figuring out the cost of a loan. Just multiply the amortized monthly payment by the term and compare that to the loan amount. If the difference makes you balk, then go ahead and walk.

How many people even realize that loan interest is a significant cost and would bother to do that? Or know how to do that? Most people just try to minimize monthly payments to something they can bear and sign the paperwork.

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> I think most people don't care about optimizing an extra $10 out of their weekly grocery run

I remember when this kind of "optimization" was done regularly by a great many shoppers on budgets. Back in the day some stores even used to put calculators on the shopping carts.

People used to know how to budget. Apparently the average American is affluent enough to not need to be able to do this any more. I worry that the atrophy of these kinds of practical skills will cause much pain for a great many people at some point down the road.

I worry too. American consumer credit card debt sounds like it's rising pretty quickly, and many people I talk to have a lack of free will and carry a sense of unfairness in the system they live in.

However, people can also adapt pretty quickly.

Those grocery shopping "optimization" skills are making a big come back (and have been since Covid). There are plenty of YouTube and TikTok videos popularizing how to get more out of their grocery hauls.

Lots of people are also learning how to budget, how to invest, etc. and sharing their excitement about it too. For some folks, they finally learn this stuff in their 40s and 50s, but there are also a lot of young adults learning these skills thanks to the Internet.

So I also have hope.

I just don't think the lack of basic math and budgeting skills displayed by average consumers are a problem so much as a symptom.

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