It might be a new year but the old year’s weaknesses persist.
For example, I still try to type the word “separate” with one “a,” still can’t walk past a display of cherry licorice without buying some, and still can’t do high-end math like, say, division.
Part of that latter weakness goes back to the 1960s when the world switched to something called “New Math.” It looked a whole lot like the old math but what did I know, I was awful busy looking for my next packet of red licorice.
A half-century and another year later, however, I may have this “new” math noodled out. Here’s what I mean.
According to the Jan. 2 Cleveland (OH) Plain Dealer, data released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Dec. 31 showed “that despite partisan rhetoric about food stamp fraud and abuse, a record low rate of food stamps were given out in error—3.42 percent in 2102 when all errors were accounted for.”
Moreover, the Plain Dealer, went on, “(O)nly 2.77 percent of the errors involved overpayment… the rest—0.65 percent—occurred in cases where the government gave fewer benefits, not more, than the recipient was entitled to.”
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