Wow, I certainly didn’t experience any of those problems when I settled my folks trust 6 years ago. It does seem that people are dumber and they just don’t care anymore these days. Case in point, just ask for assistance in a hardware store these days and the ‘help’ doesn’t know the difference between a lag screw and a machine screw. I walked out! I also wonder if all the kiosks and self checkout lines are because the help is too dumb to correctly ring up an order - we all know that they can’t make change!

Shown below, is an actual letter that was sent to a bank by an 86 year old woman.

The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published in the New York Times.
--------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Sir:

I am writing to thank you for bouncing my check with which I endeavored to pay my plumber last month.

By my calculations, three nanoseconds must have elapsed between his presenting the check and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honor it..

I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my entire pension, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only eight years.

You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account $30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank.

My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways. I noticed that whereas I personally answer your telephone calls and letters, --- when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become.

From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person.

My mortgage and loan repayments will therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank, by check, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate.

Be aware that it is an OFFENSE under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope.

Please find attached an Application Contact which I require your chosen employee to complete.

I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative.

Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Notary Public, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof.

In due course, at MY convenience, I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me.

I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modeled it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account balance on your phone bank service.

As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Let me level the playing field even further.

When you call me, press buttons as follows:
Elder Banking
IMMEDIATELY AFTER DIALING, PRESS THE STAR () BUTTON FOR ENGLISH

#1. To make an appointment to see me.

#2. To query a missing payment.

#3. To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there.

#4 To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping.

#5. To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature.

#6. To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home.

#7. To leave a message on my computer, a password to access my computer is required.

Password will be communicated to you at a later date to that Authorized Contact mentioned earlier.

#8. To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 10

#9. To make a general complaint or inquiry.

The contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service.

#10. This is a second reminder to press for English.

While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call.

Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement.

May I wish you a happy, if ever so slightly less prosperous New Year?

Your Humble Client

And remember:

Don't make old people mad. We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off.

People who don't think are easier to control. People who let dogma control them are willing pawns and shills. That's why its important to question things with an eye toward the truth.

Uninformed. A young man rushed up to the check out counter with tears in his eyes. We were just recovering from a hurricane. He was almost frantic. It seems he had no baby formula for his new baby. I took him by the hand to the evaporated milk area and learning the age of the child gave him directions for adding sterile water and told him to throw in a spoonful of Karo syrup for flavoring. What did they think we fed our babies before all the fancy formulas were invented?

I just sold my house last month and had forgotten we had titled it to our trust. What a mess that turned out to be. I had no bank account in the trust name - where were they going to send the money?

Every where I turned there was a new rule or regulation blocking the way. Finally a kind lady on phone help at CapitalOne helped me to re-title the appropriate bank account so the money could be transferred at settlement. Otherwise I was looking at holding a check for (no kidding) at least a month while a new account was opened in the trust name.

The reason we did this was to avoid some of the troubles we saw between "kids" when an elder in our family died without a will, a trust, or anything else. I am not sure we helped anyone, including ourselves, but we tried. One of the things we did not do, though, was to try to control the use of the money from the grave. I never plan to do that.

Dumb. At a local grocery store, a gentleman asked the checker, 'Where is the Pet Milk?' She directed him to the pet food area. I caught up with him and pointed out the baking items area.

I could write an essay but will just make quick comments:

When buying retail with a bill I now announce in a louder than usual voice- 'Ten'.
Or, 'out of one hundred' or whatever I am handing over. oh- and hold it a bit higher so the cameras can see and record.

This inability to make correct change may not be dumbing-down of the population, it may be revised hiring by big corps who have demographic targets to meet, subtraction is part of racism.

It is an actual fact that IQ has dropped each decade for the last sevral decades. Image when they learn no racist math, and know only critical race theory! The other day, a young black boy at McD was handed a $20 bill to my CPA husband to pay with $11.20 change coming. He shut the cash drawer. My husband said we had $11.20 change coming, boy said, register said no change, at which point the mgr. was called!
Then a friend went to WalMart with a $100 bill, bought about $50 in mdse., and the girl said she had to get more cash, as she did not have the $600. change to give her until she got more. My friend was in disbelief. She told the girl she gave her $100, how could she have $600 change, the girl looked confused!
It is getting really back out there.

You needn't look much further than the Mockingbird MSM to view the dumbing down of America and add to that virtually the whole entertainment industry. In fact, you could say if their "dumbassness" were a disease they would be the typhoid Marys spreading it nationwide. Oh, you could probably throw in a good slice of academia as well.

Obviously the dumbing down of America is across the board, but the more important observation is in your first paragraph. I’ve too noticed the large percentage of violent public interactions involve the black community.

We all are aware that BLM had the infrastructure in place in various cities around the country while they waited for the Chauvin verdict. Even though convicted of murder, a possible mistrial, sentencing, and trial of the other three officers, along with any other misidentified “racial” event will provide the spark to release the national “protests.” We may be in for a repeat of the long hot summer of ’67, especially with the absence of any rational law enforcement.

The federalization of the local police, along with the political targeting of the military, may provide the foundation of the “Nazi Synthesis” so well-articulated by Peikoff in “The Ominous Parallels.” What’s needed is for the black intellectual leadership to strongly condemn this moral absurdity on the national stage before it takes on an unstoppable life of its own.

"every person involved was African American."

Perhaps however the recent Southwest dingbat passenger was melanin-deficient.

Some states have high probate taxes, so people uses trusts to avoid them. In WI we're lucky to have low probate taxes. Attorneys still push trusts sometimes, though, because they generate a lot of legal fees. Caveat emptor.

In WI, and I think other states, you can put a ToD on real estate and PoD on brokerage and bank accounts, making all of that pass outside probate.

If you're having trouble with financial institutions, sometimes an attorney can help, not necessarily because they know the law, but because they don't dial the 800 number; they know people.

I've learned all this because my wife's firm specializing is end-of-life issues.

Regarding everyone getting dumber, I don't know. Sometimes I definitely feel like we're getting dumber or more decadent. But I also think the average citizen of the US understands that he has a right to travel, start something new, keep what they earn, disregard their family and tradition, and so on. I also see my kids and some of their friends learning and internalizing the importance of a free society. I also see their school teaching a bunch of propaganda, but I'm actually comforted by how transparent it is.