The Ignorance of Commoners Reaches New Heights

[Flynn MacCallister]

Here's an interesting thought I just had. Looking at the thread title, I thought, Doesn't that sound a bit elitist? But then it came to me: what we're doing, and what I think is an essential part of steampunk, is not the traditional elitist attitude of "we're more fortunate, so we're better", but the much more wholesome attitude of "we have educated ourselves and sought out other educated people; shall we then not joy in our mutual accomplishments? and maybe poke a little fun at those who have been too lazy to better themselves?" It could still be termed "elitist", but that would bring all the connotations of the bad kind--I would term it rather...hmm. I was thinking "philology", but that's taken. Ideas?

Elitism is elitism, whether it is based on birth, education, colour, degree of waffle-appreciation, or anything else you choose to distinguish people by.

Basing it on education -- or, indeed, on inherent intelligence, makes it no less abominable. This thread, others like it, and similar things I hear from friends similarly educated to me, fill me with shame.

[darkshines]

I am damn proud of who I am and what I have. I have been through some horrific things in my time, and I got through. I was brought up on a council estate to a single parent family after my father walked out, and I now have a Masters degree and a £13,000 a year job. I can feel as damn well elite as I like, because I worked HARD for it.

[Jonny B. Goode]

Inner of course, I work in Miniluv.....

Doubleplus ungood fullwise!

[darkshines]

And don't you ruddy well forget it! 

[Flynn MacCallister]

I am damn proud of who I am and what I have. I have been through some horrific things in my time, and I got through. I was brought up on a council estate to a single parent family after my father walked out, and I now have a Masters degree and a £13,000 a year job. I can feel as damn well elite as I like, because I worked HARD for it.

Yes, because having a university education, you are clearly inherently better than the person who got pulled out of school by his parents when he was sixteen and thrust into an apprenticeship so he could supplement the family income. He never had the chance to further his education, but he nevertheless worked hard, eventually set up his own business, got himself a wife and started a family of his own. Pah! What a commoner.

Edit: And you and I are obviously tiers above the guy who fixes my car, who also left school at sixteen, had no interest whatsoever in further education, and instead followed his passion to become a mechanic.

And as a science graduate, I'm clearly better than those lazy arts grads.

As a physicist, I'm so far above those biologists, I mean, they couldn't solve a differential equation if it slapped them across the face!

You, I, and everyone else here are not inherently better than "commoners" just because our interests are different. I am ashamed to be counted in the company of those who feel this way.

By all means, be proud of what you have achieved. You have every right to. But I maintain that none of us have any right to consider ourselves above those people we are so disparaginly calling "commoners".

[Lucius Voltaic]

Hold on there a moment, Flynn. I never said we were inherently better than "the commoners" as you put it. All I'm saying is that we can be proud of doing more worthwhile things with our lives than the average.

Also, you seem to be saying that we can be proud of something without considering it better than the alternative. How does that work? Because if this is moral relativism...

[darkshines]

I am damn proud of who I am and what I have. I have been through some horrific things in my time, and I got through. I was brought up on a council estate to a single parent family after my father walked out, and I now have a Masters degree and a £13,000 a year job. I can feel as damn well elite as I like, because I worked HARD for it.

Yes, because having a university education, you are clearly inherently better than the person who got pulled out of school by his parents when he was sixteen and thrust into an apprenticeship so he could supplement the family income. He never had the chance to further his education, but he nevertheless worked hard, eventually set up his own business, got himself a wife and started a family of his own. Pah! What a commoner.

Edit: And you and I are obviously tiers above the guy who fixes my car, who also left school at sixteen, had no interest whatsoever in further education, and instead followed his passion to become a mechanic.

And as a science graduate, I'm clearly better than those lazy arts grads.

As a physicist, I'm so far above those biologists, I mean, they couldn't solve a differential equation if it slapped them across the face!

You, I, and everyone else here are not inherently better than "commoners" just because our interests are different. I am ashamed to be counted in the company of those who feel this way.

By all means, be proud of what you have achieved. You have every right to. But I maintain that none of us have any right to consider ourselves above those people we are so disparaginly calling "commoners".

Not true. Those who follow their dreams, as I followed mine, are noble and proud people, as are those who provide for their families. Most of the people on my estate barely spoke english, just grunted, and all but one were either alcohol or drug dependant. My neighbour was a prostitute claiming benefits, instead of going out and getting a legal, good job.

The DRIVE is what puts us above the rest. The damn PRIDE in doing something to make life better for oneself or others, and not just being a pointless sponge.

I watched a tv program recently where celebrities went to live with families on benefits. There was one family who had a son at about 18. He dropped out of school at 14 because he "couldn't be bothered", and went on jobseekers, which he couldn;t even be bothered to get out of bed to claim. He stayed in bed until 4 in the afternoon, would get up to eat, play on his x box, annoy some neighbours, then go back to sleep again.

That person is a waste of oxygen, in my opinion, and if anyone else would like to comment on my views, please feel free to PM me.

[Capt. Dirigible]

A recent survey in Scotland found the following:
One in 20 children aged 9-15 think Adolf Hitler was a German football coach.
 And one in six youngsters said they thought Auschwitz was a Second World War theme park while one in 20 said the Holocaust was a celebration at the end of the war.
The survey for a veterans' charity also found one in 10 thought the SS stood for Enid Blyton's Secret Seven, and one in 12 believed the Blitz was a European clean-up operation following the Second World War.

These are not 'unfortunate' children who, like Mr Macallister says "got pulled out of school by his parents when he was sixteen and thrust into an apprenticeship so he could supplement the family income. He never had the chance to further his education, but he nevertheless worked hard, eventually set up his own business, got himself a wife and started a family of his own" Nor are they like "the guy who fixes my car, who also left school at sixteen, had no interest whatsoever in further education, and instead followed his passion to become a mechanic".


No, these are  children who simply don't have any interest in anything that happened before they were born as it's 'boring'..'old fashioned' and 'crap..innit!'. These are the people you see lurking on street corners in hoodies swigging alcohol...pushing prams with three different coloured babies in before they're 18 or married..who hang about in the park doing drugs and think it's funny to kick a Goth to death for being 'different'..who look upon an ASBO as a badge of merit and a reversed baseball cap as an essential item of clothing. The kind of people who avidly follow  programmes like Big Brother..X Factor..who , when asked..sorry maybe I should say 'when arksed' what they want to be when they leave school say 'I wanna be famous, innit'..'Ah wannabe a 'sleb'.. or 'I'm gonna be a WAG'. These people, when they finally leave school with no qualifications at all because they are simply too thick to complete an exam, then chose a life of 'benefits and unemployment' because it's easier than getting a job. They are the underclass...you know....scum. And as such deserve to be ridiculed and humilated and treated like the thick as pig-sh!t scum they are and if I had my way I'd exterminate the lot of them because they serve absolutely no use in society  are a drain on resources and breed like rabbits creating more of the same.

I think the use of the term 'commoners' in the title of this thread does tend to make those of us who have contributed sound elitist or snobby because  calling people 'commoners' implies a class system of 'us and them'. Maybe the term, 'muggle' (as used by Utini in one of his posts) to describe those who are not part of the steampunk 'scene' (for want of a better word) or even 'outsiders' would be better than 'commoners' which does rather make us sound like a bunch of upper class Hooray-Henrys whose idea of a good day out is  hunting 'council estate oiks' with a pack of hounds.

..and for what it's worth..I live on a council estate.

[Theophilus Saxe]

I know something of what you say, Captain Dirigible. Back in 2002 I worked in the local council housing office on a big estate, dealing directly with the Great British Public on council house repairs, installations, decoration, etc.

I'd answer the phone, get as far as "Good mor -" only to be interrupted with the standard "Wot it is right is (insert complaint/demand here)" ending with "So get sumwhun dahn 'ere right nah, okay?!"

Uh huh.

Then we'd get incidents like the woman who demanded her double-glazed kitchen window be repaired for the third time that year because, yet again, a bird flew into it.

Uh huh.

And the council housing inspector who told me of the annual inspection he'd just carried out on a property. What he found was (read on with caution, here - not for those with delicate stomachs)

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The toilet had become blocked but the tenant continued to use it to the point it overflowed - at which point they switched to using the bath - also to the point it overflowed.

Uh huh.

Add to that the usual practice of the council's main contractor in using substandard materials for repairs and installations. This was in the sure and certain knowledge that within months or a year they'd get to charge the taxpayer a nice call-out fee to fix what should have been done properly in the first instance.

I'm an equable chap from a working class background, and happy to get the widow's mite out of anyone. But I reserve the right to feel I'm just a bit better than folks such as those.

[Lucius Voltaic]

They are the underclass...you know....scum. And as such deserve to be ridiculed and humilated and treated like the thick as pig-sh!t scum they are and if I had my way I'd exterminate the lot of them because they serve absolutely no use in society  are a drain on resources and breed like rabbits creating more of the same.

I say, steady on there old chap. There's no need to get idiocidal.

The DRIVE is what puts us above the rest. The damn PRIDE in doing something to make life better for oneself or others, and not just being a pointless sponge.

Well put, darkshines. If we consider someone like, say, Forrest Gump--clearly not intelligent--I would not say I was better than he. But this is because he betters himself in the ways he can--he is honest and kind, he cares for his friends, etc. Flynn, I really don't appreciate your straw-man argument with the kid who got pulled out of school but nevertheless got a job and a family and all. This is clearly not the type of person that darkshines, Theophilus Saxe, Capt. Dirigible, and I have been disparaging. I would probably not have much in common with that kid, but I would not look down on him--as with Forrest Gump, he bettered himself in the way that was open to him.

[RoseOak]

Ok my ha penny worth.

I think we are straying away from the point of this thread. I tend to come onto this thread to view the contenders for the Darwin awards.

I don't have near enough the education and knowledge that I would like to have. My family took me out of school when I was 6 yrs old to home educate me which basically meant lessons when they had the time but most of the time I was left to my own devises. We never had much money but I was brought up in a more shall we say *Civilised* atmosphere then would have been normal to a family of our social situation. I see plenty of people with more money and academic qualifications then I have who seem not to have half the brains nor wit that I was born with. My family made sure that we always went to museums and the theatre, that I read and that I was independent and could think for myself.

A lot of people are idiots and money will not change that but saying that a 18 yr old single mother with a pram that looks like happy hour at the UN with a fag in her mouth and who is effing and blinding to all who can hear is the same as me is something I find rather insulting. True she may not have had a good start in life but to stay in a rut that can go nowhere is not the only option.

Earlier in the year due to economic reasons I was forced to go on jsa fr a short period and believe  me it is not an experience I would willingly repeat. I went on a course that I was offered that was said to help me in finding a job that I was suitable for. I'm designer maker but would have taken within reason any job offered.  I spent the two weeks sitting in the front of the room reading poetry, philosophy and dressed to quote "like an effing weirdo". By the middle of the first week I was bringing in two books a day as the tutor admitted that I was above her level of expertise and by the start of the second she told me to sit at the back and ignore her . I ended up being the seamstress for interview clothes.

I was also the only person including her who knew what astrophysics was (not joking)

[SPBrewer]

Not to play devil's advocate, but elevating intellect based on what you know versus what others do is a dangerous area. I may be able to out wit an American football loving, pick up truck driving, tobacco spitting redneck in areas of history and the arts, but it still doesn't stop me from paying him huge amounts of money to fix my car. People focus on what interests them, for most here that is history, art, literature, etc. I would imagine it only hurts us to criticize others for not sharing our loves and hobbies...in fact, it sounds like we might be guilty of the same actions that we claim bring us so much grief.

I'll be willing to wager your income is greater than the "American football loving, pick up truck driving, tobacco spitting redneck".  : )

SPBrewer

[SPBrewer]

You sent something to Tasmania and it ended up in Tanzania, I take it?

            The type behind the counter weighed my parcel, asked me where it was going, looked up the cost, and said '£xxxx to Tanzania'. It said 'TASMANIA' in large, friendly letters on the parcel. On the part of a public servant, I think that is shocking ignorance. Or stupidity or both. They are common bedfellows.

Speaking of Tasmania, I wonder how many of these folks watch "Young Einstein" and miss all the fun.
To me, "Young Einstein" is a Steampunk movie that is too often overlooked.  What a great Victorian Science Fiction Comedy it is!

SPBrewer
"If you can't trust the governments of the world, who can you trust?"

[Flynn MacCallister]

To reply to all of you, in a lot of cases on this thread, and on several others on here, what it looks to me like you are ridiculing is the man I talked about on his day off. Uneducated, not interested in "higher things", uncultured, his main passions being beer, and football (and his family, where appropriate.) The Commoner. The Yob. Maybe it was not you specifically saying that, maybe you were talking about the drunk, disinterested teenager who thinks he has the right to get money from the guv'mint, yeah?

[Just as an aside: To be honest, though, I don't even think it's the drunk, disinterested teenagers fault that he's drunk and disinterested. What options has he been presented with? Stay in school, which he hates, or stay on the Estate and get money from the guv'mint, where at least he can play XBox and watch the football, which actually interests him.

Some of the examples that have been presented of Estate squalor are also going so far that in at least some cases unlikely that these people are just "lazy". Filth, hoarding, and excessive "laziness" to the point where the living environment becomes highly unhygenic are markers of mental illness.]

As for being proud without "considering it better than the alternative", of course you can. It is better than the alternative for you, because the alternative does not interest you. You can be proud, because you did work hard to follow that interest, or even that dream. The alternative? That could be a mechanic. It could be a retail sales worker. It could be a football player. It could be a small-business owner. Any of these may be far easier to reach from your starting point. Choosing the harder option does not make you better in any way.

On the other hand, yes. Choosing an option is preferable to squalor, poverty and unhappiness. For most of us in the developed world, an option can be chosen. It is not neccessary to do nothing but lurk in dark alleys wearing a hoodie swinging a sack of goon. But why are these people doing this?



(Also, it's miss. Not mister.)

[RoseOak]

Iagree with some of the things that you are saying Flynn. A lot of them dont have much of a choice because that is what they are used to. Maybe they hate school because there are 60 pupils  and one teacher to a class and the teacher is no good and the school is a failing one. Maybe they go through their lives purely on benifits because they don't know anything else, because thats what their parents have done for as long as they can remember.
  You says its not the yobs fault he/she is a yob but you can't blame it all on Society, people have to take responsibility for their own actions No one tells them go throw bricks in wondows,get drunk and vomit all over the street,swear and pick fights,or mug old ladies for their pension money and beat them up.

 No one is saying that football and family as the most important things is a bad thing but its when people don't try to even reach out to improve themselves that is something that a lot of us here simply cannot understand.
 We do out best everyday to inject some form of civility into our lives in the way we dress and act so to be confronted by such uncivilised behavour leaves us with a slighty sour taste in our mouths.

[Flynn MacCallister]

Iagree with some of the things that you are saying Flynn. A lot of them dont have much of a choice because that is what they are used to. Maybe they hate school because there are 60 pupils  and one teacher to a class and the teacher is no good and the school is a failing one. Maybe they go through their lives purely on benifits because they don't know anything else, because thats what their parents have done for as long as they can remember.
  You says its not the yobs fault he/she is a yob but you can't blame it all on Society, people have to take responsibility for their own actions No one tells them go throw bricks in wondows,get drunk and vomit all over the street,swear and pick fights,or mug old ladies for their pension money and beat them up.

 No one is saying that football and family as the most important things is a bad thing but its when people don't try to even reach out to improve themselves that is something that a lot of us here simply cannot understand.
 We do out best everyday to inject some form of civility into our lives in the way we dress and act so to be confronted by such uncivilised behavour leaves us with a slighty sour taste in our mouths.

Oh, yes, I agree with that completely. There is absolutely no excuse for violence and random property damage. I'm not trying to absolve anyone of responsibility for their actions. Only the profoundly mentally challenged are actually incapable of making the link between beating someone up or ruining their home, and that it is actually a person, just like them, that they have affected.

But outright not knowing stuff? I know plenty of stuff that most people don't know. I have problem-solving approaches and strategies that I rarely encounter in people outside of my field. I also don't know an amazing of stuff that someone else -- anyone else -- does, and I'm no-where near as good at figuring certain types of things out as they are. The stuff I know -- or don't know -- does not make me, or anyone else, superior to anyone. Going right back to the start, that is my objection.

[Lucius Voltaic]

The stuff I know -- or don't know -- does not make me, or anyone else, superior to anyone. Going right back to the start, that is my objection.

I see your point. However, I think you're making the easy error of conflating "knowing something" with "having taken the trouble to figure it out".

[Darkhound]

I would like to point out that I do not despise those who don't know what I know. After all, there are a great many things I don't know myself.

If the lad Miss Flynn MacCallister spoke of, forced out of an inferior school early etc. showed up at Fort McHenry and wanted to know what the battle was about, why there was a fort there in the first place, or what the big deal with the flag was, he would have the benefit of all my knowledge and thought for the asking, with never a hint of a sneer. Even if his questions revealed a deep underlying ignorance, I wouldn't consider getting all superior with him. Chances are he would be asking at least semi-intelligent questions anyway.

But what are we to say of the people I suffered through high school with? Ranging from upper middle to high upper class socially, prosperous to wealthy, born of college educated parents and raised in nice homes, they remained, and likely remain to this day, completely oblivious to everything but prepackaged pop culture in its most digestible form. These are the types who ask the truly gobsmackingly dumb questions, who can't distinguish between Edison and Einstein, and don't want to. I was known to be good at history. I have been asked whether the Wright Brothers were related, whether Albert Einstein was a Nazi because he had a kinda German sounding name, and which side won World War II by people who had every possible advantage of opportunity and circumstance, but didn't care. It is that lack of caring that offends me. It's not even the casual approach of the fellow who prefers some other field of knowledge, such as small engine repair or radio operations. It is a deeply held contempt of knowledge itself that causes this sort of thing. They probably hold me in a similar degree of contempt. After all, I don't even know if Brad and Angelina are married, or still married, or married again, or anything important like that.

[Flynn MacCallister]

The stuff I know -- or don't know -- does not make me, or anyone else, superior to anyone. Going right back to the start, that is my objection.

I see your point. However, I think you're making the easy error of conflating "knowing something" with "having taken the trouble to figure it out".

And if I don't have the background to figure it out?

Classic example: there is an absolutely brilliant guy in the School of Physics at my university. The Master of theoretical optics. Was giving a second year lecture, and wanted to do a demo... oh, probably to show the differences in the changes in conductivity upon heating a semiconductor and a metal. He had a gas lighter-- you know, one of those stove lighters -- for his heat source. He struggled with it for about five minutes, maybe a little more, trying to work out how to work the thing, before he finally had to give up. Handed it to the closest student, who lit it immediately. You see this all the time. I've done the same sort of thing myself on more than one occasion. I have also just occasionally been the one who sees how to get something to work immediately, usually because it resembles something with which I'm familiar.

[Khet Thelonius Maxwell]

The stuff I know -- or don't know -- does not make me, or anyone else, superior to anyone. Going right back to the start, that is my objection.

I see your point. However, I think you're making the easy error of conflating "knowing something" with "having taken the trouble to figure it out".

And if I don't have the background to figure it out?

I hate to raise hackles if this does, but in today's day an age, I don't really see that as an excuse. The internet is rife with information from quantum physics, to mathematics, to notable figures in our history and even Steampunk. Unless one is completely barred from any internet access (which in America are few, for even those we consider living on "poverty" have television and internet) the only backgrounds I could see not having the "background to figure it out" would be those without homes or in very remote parts of the world.

While I understand that you have no control over the life you a born with, I vehemently oppose the argument of "but they can't help it." Chances are, they don't want to help it. I know a man who is perfectly capable of working but has worked the "system" so he gets free government money due to "disability." I also know (one of the best people I've ever met) of one young lad born into what Americans consider "poverty" with typical "trailer-trash" parents however he's made quite a life for himself. He's only 27, lives on his own in a nice house, and drives a rather mid-range priced car. There's no excuse, ever, for not trying to better yourself despite your surroundings. Those who don't bother, it's not that they "can't help it" it's that they don't care. They're content to live their lives moaning and groaning and getting free money, money I might add, that americans work for. Money that is taken out of OUR taxes to pay for THEM because they're too lazy to earn it themselves. Why work for money when others can do it for you?

But, I could easily have mistaken your meaning, which is very possible, and if I have, I'm terribly sorry.

[Flynn MacCallister]

The stuff I know -- or don't know -- does not make me, or anyone else, superior to anyone. Going right back to the start, that is my objection.

I see your point. However, I think you're making the easy error of conflating "knowing something" with "having taken the trouble to figure it out".

And if I don't have the background to figure it out?

I hate to raise hackles if this does, but in today's day an age, I don't really see that as an excuse. The internet is rife with information from quantum physics, to mathematics, to notable figures in our history and even Steampunk. Unless one is completely barred from any internet access (which in America are few, for even those we consider living on "poverty" have television and internet) the only backgrounds I could see not having the "background to figure it out" would be those without homes or in very remote parts of t

Well, I suppose I could have just nipped home to look up how that damned parking meter was meant to work....

[SPBrewer]

... You can be proud, because you did work hard to follow that interest, or even that dream. The alternative? That could be a mechanic. ....
Any of these may be far easier to reach from your starting point. Choosing the harder option does not make you better in any way.

One day, my wife and I were in the check out line of a large store.  The typical American young person was working the automatic cash register and asked if we knew the time.  I looked at my empty wrist and since I do not carry a pocket watch, I was unable to tell her the time.  I said, "I'll tell you in a minute".  To which she simply gave a blank look.

I think that not only has the ignorance of commoners reached new heights, their ability to think has reached new lows.  If I am being an elitist, it is not because I have become more elite, it is because the majority is becoming less elite.

It is easy to see how the Eloi of the world 800,000 years from now came to be in the George Pal version of HG Wells "Time Machine".  I honestly don't think it will take 800 years.

Have you determined how I was able tell the cashier the time?   

Once she gave me the receipt, I looked at it and said, "It's 3:14".

SPBrewer  - Not an Elitist because I want to be, but because they make me one.

[Khet Thelonius Maxwell]

The stuff I know -- or don't know -- does not make me, or anyone else, superior to anyone. Going right back to the start, that is my objection.

I see your point. However, I think you're making the easy error of conflating "knowing something" with "having taken the trouble to figure it out".

And if I don't have the background to figure it out?

I hate to raise hackles if this does, but in today's day an age, I don't really see that as an excuse. The internet is rife with information from quantum physics, to mathematics, to notable figures in our history and even Steampunk. Unless one is completely barred from any internet access (which in America are few, for even those we consider living on "poverty" have television and internet) the only backgrounds I could see not having the "background to figure it out" would be those without homes or in very remote parts of t

Well, I suppose I could have just nipped home to look up how that damned parking meter was meant to work....

While I confess it's not always possible, but where I have encountered parking meters I've yet to see one without some form of directions posted on them, usually along the lines of "insert money and come back in fifteen/thirty minutes to insert more money"

[Flynn MacCallister]

The stuff I know -- or don't know -- does not make me, or anyone else, superior to anyone. Going right back to the start, that is my objection.

I see your point. However, I think you're making the easy error of conflating "knowing something" with "having taken the trouble to figure it out".

And if I don't have the background to figure it out?

I hate to raise hackles if this does, but in today's day an age, I don't really see that as an excuse. The internet is rife with information from quantum physics, to mathematics, to notable figures in our history and even Steampunk. Unless one is completely barred from any internet access (which in America are few, for even those we consider living on "poverty" have television and internet) the only backgrounds I could see not having the "background to figure it out" would be those without homes or in very remote parts of t

Well, I suppose I could have just nipped home to look up how that damned parking meter was meant to work....

While I confess it's not always possible, but where I have encountered parking meters I've yet to see one without some form of directions posted on them, usually along the lines of "insert money and come back in fifteen/thirty minutes to insert more money"

This specific one had the old-fashioned type of sliding-tray coin slot. I'd never seen one before, and completely failed to recognise it for what it was.

[Flynn MacCallister]

... You can be proud, because you did work hard to follow that interest, or even that dream. The alternative? That could be a mechanic. ....
Any of these may be far easier to reach from your starting point. Choosing the harder option does not make you better in any way.

One day, my wife and I were in the check out line of a large store.  The typical American young person was working the automatic cash register and asked if we knew the time.  I looked at my empty wrist and since I do not carry a pocket watch, I was unable to tell her the time.  I said, "I'll tell you in a minute".  To which she simply gave a blank look.

I think that not only has the ignorance of commoners reached new heights, their ability to think has reached new lows.  If I am being an elitist, it is not because I have become more elite, it is because the majority is becoming less elite.

It is easy to see how the Eloi of the world 800,000 years from now came to be in the George Pal version of HG Wells "Time Machine".  I honestly don't think it will take 800 years.

Have you determined how I was able tell the cashier the time?   

Once she gave me the receipt, I looked at it and said, "It's 3:14".

SPBrewer  - Not an Elitist because I want to be, but because they make me one.

I fail to see the relevance of that. Why would she know what was on the reciept? Unless she was handling returns -- and if the store was large enough I imagine she wasn't -- she may well have never had reason to look at a reciept from the store she worked at. I certainly never shopped at a lot of places I've worked. Furthermore, if it is your implication, how do you know whether or not she was able to read a time off her register?