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> If you buy a mandolin(knife skills are for tv shows and culinary school)

I’m happy that a mandolin is working for you, but there is a lot more to knife skills than slicing - there are a lot of foods and cuts that a mandolin can’t do, and they aren’t difficult or unsafe. As long as you don’t feel a need to be as fast as a line chef, you can do pretty much any cut with about 5 minutes of practice.

Is current society so depend on ready prepared meals that people don't even have basic knife skills? This is mind blowing to me.

Just cook your own food for a few months and you develop enough knife skills to never look back.

I don't even have fancy knives--ever--I buy the $3 knives from the Asian grocery store. They dull after a few months, and sometimes I sharpen, sometimes I toss.

Nah, I was much faster with a knife and a bit of practice than with a mandolin, and mandolins can only do certain things. I liked the mandolin but it was also a pain to clean vs a knife.