My kids are really young but I am finding some of the most appealing maths for them is counting coins, and counting attack and defense and power levels in a card game I designed with my kids. A colorful abacus helps to visualize it.

I used to like maths as a kid and never really understood the it's not useful argument. How are people supposed to design and build all the technology we use without maths?

Abouyt the conditioned consumers part, well, you know what they say, a fool and his money are soon parted, so if you want money, one tactic is to condition people to foolishly give it to you...