sloppyjoeslayer, I love you dearly because you can THINK. But that is rare. Most people are STUPID--very, very stupid. They are math-challenged beyond arithmetic almost 100%. Arithmetic is rote memorization, and you can pound that into people. But actual comprehension of graphs, tables, statistics--rare.
Then there is economics. To stupid add selfish, greedy, arrogant beyond words. Here, ignorance improverishes and sometimes kills. Venezuela's dictator dictated what prices could be charged for goods. People were ecstatic to get goods at "fair" prices at last, no more greedy capitalists. Those prices were below the cost of production, so the economy collapsed. Now they are starving--and many are dying.
A lot of people died from crime following Argentina's economic collapse early in this century. That was also buyer greed. YOU understand that phrase, but most people find it utterly incomprehensible--even the current pope.
I once watched a video of a South African cowboy trying to lasso a gnu. The gnu evaded that lasso over and over with elegant grace and awareness. Gnus that were as unaware as nearly all human beings would swiftly be dead.
7 points of the stupid is fluoride in the drinking water. More is heavy metals in vaccines, antiperspirants and processed food. Some is insecticides. Then there are teachers with no real understanding of math themselves. The teacher problem and its proven solution is found on the web at
www.constitution.org/col/one_room_schoolhouse.htm
There is also a remarkable book called "The Wisdom of Crowds," by James Surowiecki. That book will change the world when enough people read and comprehend it. It will tell you why the market is always far wiser than a few individuals, even if the few are as smart as you and me while the crowd is the dumb as a box of rocks people stupid enough to believe in "fair" trade.