Why, oh why, do people in the US need to go to Higher Education to understand something as simple as percentages? (If this is the case the education system has

Why, oh why, do people in the US need to go to Higher Education to understand something as simple as percentages? (If this is the case the education system has simply failed) This is, (to coin your own), grade-scool mathematics, or is treated as such across most of Europe. Granted a lot of people fail because they simply can't be bothered. I don't buy the self-deprecating excuse of "I'm no good at maths me" from 99% of people repeating what they've seen on the idiot box, they just don't apply themselves. I've known someone math-dyslexic and they made a great deal of effort _not_ to highlight it, they were better than most normal people at simple stuff like this it just took them longer.