Illiteracy and how it affects business.

Computers are being used more and more, often for a way for hourly people to punch in and out of workplace timesheets. Some people cannot even read a computer screen with their own name on it to punch in. They can do social media but have a hard time doing anything else with a computer, they lack basic computer skills for business, or they are not detailed enough to choose the correct username from a list.

But there can be multiple issues behind this such as:

1. Vision problems. 99% of business in the US is small business and most of them do not provide vision insurance. The ones that do may provide limited payments for glasses, or no coverage at all.

2. Learning problems.

3. Reading problems like dyslexia.

4. Illiteracy.

5. Little or no training in being detailed and attentive.

6. Little or no training in using Business applications like Excel or Word.

The US national report card.

Larger proportion of eighth-grade students performed below NAEP Basic in reading in 30 states/jurisdictions. From https://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/

Today (2018), 1 in 6 adults — approximately 35 million Americans — possess reading skills below the level of a fourth-grader. Studies show that adult literacy rates have not improved over the past 25 years, but many believe that this is still a marked improvement from where we were before the creation of the public school system. There’s a common misconception that Americans were illiterate before the 1830s. But in reality, that’s not quite true. From https://readcenter.org/literacy-rates-improved-since-1776/

And from https://www.crossrivertherapy.com/research/literacy-statistics we have:

1. Nationwide, on average, 79% of U.S. adults are literate in 2022. 21% of adults in the US are illiterate in 2022.

2. 54% of adults have a literacy below sixth-grade level.

3. 21% of Americans 18 and older are illiterate in 2022.

4. California has the lowest literacy rate in the country, with 23% of them having little to no proficiency in reading skills.

5. 2/3 of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of the 4th grad will end up in jail or on welfare.

6. 26 other countries have a literacy rate of 100% for adults.

The plague of ignorance.

There is also a plague of ignorance, especially about how US government works.

A 2014 study of 1,416 adults by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania reported a startling lack of knowledge about American government.

While little more than a third of respondents (36 percent) could name all three branches of the U.S. government, just as many (35 percent) could not name a single one.

It seems schools are succeeding in dumbing down students so they are easily controlled. A sad state of affairs that.

EDIT: It’s not just the immigrants that have problems, it’s the Americans as well, in about equal proportions.