Re: bad item

[George Sheridan <learn@jps.net>]

Victor:

I do not understand why you dismissed the student's concern about tax. As 
far as I know, there is no tax on dues, but only on the product sold by the 
club (in this case CD's). Therefore, a package where the cost of the 
product constituted a higher percentage of the total cost might be a worse 
deal than it at first appears, depending on the tax rate. The higher the 
tax rate, the worse deal a low-dues, high-cost-per-CD package would become.

At 11:46 AM 5/5/2003 -0400, Victor Steinbok wrote:

> > "You would have to know if there was shipping and handling.  You know,
> > that?s how they get you sometimes."
> >
> > "Do they charge tax? I think if they?re in New York or something, they
> > charge tax, or Michigan."
>
> OK. These two are completely irrelevant and kids should recognize 
> it--since tax is a percentage of costs (and therefore proportional to the 
> cost) and the shipping is assumed to be the same for any package since the 
> package sizes are identical, that means that the result is not in any way 
> affected by these two variables. The best deal is still the best deal. If 
> your defense is that students approach the problem in a more realistic 
> manner than the designers, it does not fly here. Neither of these two 
> explanations should prevent them from answering the question correctly.

George Sheridan
4467 Meadowbrook Road
Garden Valley, California 95633

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort 
and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.