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Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

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Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#181

Post by FireBeyond »

UI_at_80x24 wrote: post #5

Yes. Canada stopped producing pennies in the fall of 2012. [0] The sky didn't fall. There was no great debate, no public opinion polls and politicians swearing heartily about the demise of our great nation. (Ok that's probably not true. For too many politicians that's all they do.) There was resistance when Canada dropped the $1 bill in favour of a Loonie (a $1 coin with the image of a loon on it). People bitched abo…

Re the tax situation:

When Australia ditched the 1 and 2 cent coins, making 5 cents the smallest denomination, the rules were that transactions ending in 1, 2, 6 or 7 were to be rounded down to 0 or 5, respectively, and that 3, 4, 8 or 9 were rounded up, and that this was to be done at the _transaction_, not the _item_ level.

Several companies and utilities had to be reprimanded or fined due to doing it per item.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#182

Post by jscipione »

There are billions more pennies lying in jars in people's houses than are in regular circulation. Even if we were to stop minting new pennies today we could coax the population to turn their pennies in and we wouldn't run out for centuries to come. There is no shortage of pennies. I don't care what Canada does, you're not going to take my pennies away.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#183

Post by refurb »

stilley2 wrote: post #35
UI_at_80x24 wrote: post #5

Yes. Canada stopped producing pennies in the fall of 2012. [0] The sky didn't fall. There was no great debate, no public opinion polls and politicians swearing heartily about the demise of our great nation. (Ok that's probably not true. For too many politicians that's all they do.) There was resistance when Canada dropped the $1 bill in favour of a Loonie (a $1 coin with the image of a loon on it). People bitched abo…

> This is a key difference between US policy & Canadian policy that I have informally noticed while growing up on the border (with family ties on both sides). My wife's Canadian and I'm American, and we've discussed this point too. My theory is that Canada's parliamentary system generally puts one party in charge of the executive and legislative, so it's easier for that party to get things done. Of course there are t…

As someone who has lived on both sides of the border, my theory is that Canadians are just less politically active. I can remember major bills coming for vote and sure, you'd see a few news articles, but rarely did it become entrenched in daily discussion.

I actually liked the US approach when I first arrived - "how great! everyone is passionate about politics!". I find it somewhat draining now. There is almost no part of life (work, friends, random strangers) where politics doesn't come up.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#184

Post by tedunangst »

mark-r wrote: post #172
cwhiz wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Practical reality in 2020 is different than whatever the intended design was. There is no possible way to pay with a fraction of a penny.

"Practical reality" hasn't changed. There never was a way to pay anything with a fraction of a penny, even when cards made it theoretically possible. The final price just gets adjusted to a whole penny amount.

The US has minted half cent coins in the past.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#186

Post by ghaff »

hoorayimhelping wrote: post #78
klyrs wrote: post #46

As an American living in Canada, I gotta say. Pennies and dollar bills SUCK. We have $1 and $2 coins and they're actually useful. Every time I visit home, I end up with piles of pennies and wads of stinky, tattered, overcirculated garbage bills. If you accumulate a pile $1 and $2 coins, nobody looks askance if you plunk down a stack of them. But god, the glares if you want to spend $20 in dollar bills. I say take it…

It wasn't until I went to the UK in my late 20s that I realized how badly America needs coins in the dollar and two dollar denomination. Having spare coins with weight and mass rather than loose dollar bills helped me get a sense of how many loose singles I had, and being able to drop a couple coins on a counter to pay for cheap items (a bag of M&Ms, a cup of coffee) is somehow, I don't know how, but somehow more erg…

Conversely I almost never carry change in the US and, on the increasingly rare occasions I use cash, I usually just bring the change home and dump it in a bucket. I don't want change that has any significant value.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#187

Post by refurb »

talideon wrote: post #76
stilley2 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is a key difference between US policy & Canadian policy that I have informally noticed while growing up on the border (with family ties on both sides). My wife's Canadian and I'm American, and we've discussed this point too. My theory is that Canada's parliamentary system generally puts one party in charge of the executive and legislative, so it's easier for that party to get things done. Of course there are t…

I don't think that's the case myself. While I do think that the parliamentary system is better than the congressional system, I think it's more that the parliamentary system emphasises consensus-building and executive accountability more. This is especially apparent in countries where a form of proportional representation is used for elections.

Consensus building? If a party in Canada gets a majority in Parliament, they can pass whatever bills they want (the senate rarely intervenes unless it's really controversial). And individual MPs have much less leeway to stray from the party line.

The US system is much more adversarial. Even if a single party gets the house, senate and presidency, there isn't much stopping individual party members from voting against the party line.

It's true consensus is need with a coalition/minority government, but they don't seem to happen that often. Yes, I know there is one right now.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#188

Post by irrational »

But then how would we make souvenir flattened pennies for .26 at tourist traps?

Seriously, I haven’t used cash in so many years that I literally can’t remember the last time I touched paper money or coins. Maybe 15 years ago? As far as I’m concerned, we’ve already transitioned to a 100% digital economy and there is no longer a need for analog money.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#189

Post by jdhawk »

lostapathy wrote: post #111
pottspotts wrote: post #18

About 10 years ago my friends and I made a Web site, removethepenny.com (no longer active) and starting calling around to see who would support us. I recall speaking to someone who was very angry that we cared so little for the metal industry. I think this has been known for a long time but special interests have kept it on life support for obvious reasons.

I'm not sure the reasons are so obvious. Surely very little metal is turned into pennies compared to the quantities consumed by industrial processes.

last year they made 8.4BN pennies, which would be about 21 million KG of Zinc, worth about ~$40 million?

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#190

Post by coding123 »

jscipione wrote: post #182

There are billions more pennies lying in jars in people's houses than are in regular circulation. Even if we were to stop minting new pennies today we could coax the population to turn their pennies in and we wouldn't run out for centuries to come. There is no shortage of pennies. I don't care what Canada does, you're not going to take my pennies away.

A good way - a single day where each turned in penny gives you 3 "cents" in exchange. Of course you would be giving out only dollar or higher bills in such a program.
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