Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by breakpointalpha 24 days ago
I actually think many people would choose this option, if it was possible.

21% of Americans are functionally illiterate according to the University of Alabama.

2 comments

> 21% of Americans are functionally illiterate according to the University of Alabama.

This was false. University of Alabama said this was according to the National Center for Educational Statistics.[1] NCES said 21% of US adults had low English literacy. This meant could not participate due to a language barrier or a cognitive or physical inability to be interviewed, below level 1, or level 1. Their definition of functionally illiterate in English was below level 1. This was 4.1%.[2]

[1] https://risingtide.ua.edu/education/statewide-ua-literacy-ce...

[2] https://nces.ed.gov/pubs2019/2019179/index.asp

Independently of literacy, I think many people desperately yearn for someone else to write or speak for them.

"Putting their name on documents" or "speaking publicly" is just an excruciating requirement to keep cashing checks, and each time it comes up the first thought bubbling up from the autonomic system is "how the fuck do I get out of this".