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BGonline.org Forums
A real-world situation
Posted By: Jim Stutz In Response To: +1 (Bob Koca)
Date: Wednesday, 12 June 2024, at 6:45 p.m.
My wife and I are lifetime members of our local residential lake association. (We were neighbors as children.). We are known as strong supporters of higher association taxes to fund lake-water-quality measures. We both missed the meeting during which the proposed dues increase, which required 2/3 approval of those in attendance, was defeated by just two votes.
After the fact, we were (mildly) rebuked for not attending and voting, with some even asserting that our yea votes would have been enough pass -- or nearly pass -- the motion. So I did the grade-school-level math and circulated it, to little effect, as it turned out. Many of our neighbors would not accept my answer, or that the problem could possibly have three valid answers depending on how many members attended the meeting, and whether or not the total attendance figure ended up evenly divisible by 3.
No eye-popping revelations here, but here is my three-part takeaway: 1) Plenty of otherwise high-functioning people are bad with numbers (What a surprise!). 2) Even math problems that require no more than 6th-grade arithmetic can be diabolically confusing. 3) No matter what evidence you present, good luck getting people to change their opinion once they have made up their minds and staked out their position.
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