Evolutionary Speed Bump?

Digital  technology is great. The kids born into it accept it no questions asked. The idea of doing without it is unthinkable.

And that's the problem. It is entirely possible that the last couple of generations would be hopelessly lost without it..

I went shopping for some edibles today. I feel silly talking to machines, so I get into the lineups with cashiers. These are being discouraged by the supermarkets because of Kathleen Wynne's $15/hr wage minimum decree in buying votes last election in Ontario. 

Market strategists saw this, quite correctly, as only the beginning of a political trend and invested in robot check-out lines. Now they're trying to phase out cashiers.

There may be reasons other than the wage. It has to do with education. Kids educated in Ontario lately have problems dealing with dollars and cents. They are not being taught to think.

My bill for $15.34 would have netted me  Loonies, Toonies and a fistful of quarters, nickels and dimes, so I offered the cashier a twenty and 35 cents. 

She stood there, in a state of comatose brain-freeze, because the situation no longer matched what the machine showed. She took the money I offered, retrieved change, handed it to me along with the sales slip, and turned to the next in line.

I pocketed it and was halfway to the door before it occurred to me that the change didn't feel right. Sure enough, it was a $5 bill plus a Loonie.

Now, the choice was: go back and embarrass the cashier by pointing out the error; or continue on and live with the guilt.

I'm feeling guilty, but not too much. I rationalized it by recalling other times when the wrong change was not in my favour.