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Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

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Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#281

Post by dlivingston »

lolsal wrote: post #263
dlivingston wrote: post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If we assume that it takes 2 seconds to pick up a penny, and you were to pick up pennies continuously, then you would be “earning” only $18 / hour.

Ok, but if I pick up pennies between my car and the grocery store the opportunity cost is basically nil, and then after a few months I'd have a non-trivial amount of cash.

If you picked up 10 pennies a day, you would only have $3 at the end of the month. Assuming you are not living in poverty, these sort of hyper-frugal behaviors are quite interesting to me from a psychological perspective.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#282

Post by VLM »

harryh wrote: post #109
Cerium wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Full benefits could phase in over time. You could get increasing discounts on public services until you reach full state membership. This would be no different than out of state school fees.

The Supreme Court has ruled ideas like this unconstitutional. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-may-18-mn-38325...

The trivial solution is to tie residency to property ownership or property lease, and payment of property tax. Then use the prop tax to pay for the health care, because almost all health care is local anyway. Have the hospital or clinic or whatever bill the municipal taxing authority wherever you live; for most people the house you live in.

Determining residency is not rocket surgery; could steal the entire system from state income tax codes.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#283

Post by ciceryadam »

bdowling wrote: post #264
Pamar wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, yes, this... I am European and during my brief stay in the USA the fact that taxes were added at the cashier was awkward. I am sure you had your reasons and if you grow up in that sustem you won't notice much, but it looks a bit counterintuitive to foreigners.

Taxes are computed at the cashier because tax rates vary from state to state and city to city. If sales taxes were uniform then we would see more advertised prices including tax. One exception is in advertised gasoline prices, which usually include all the taxes, including sales tax and special gasoline taxes.

But why is it possible for gasoline, and not for other items?

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#284

Post by jayflux »

dafoex wrote: post #142

I know this is about the US penny, but from a UK perspective I think it'd be much more useful to kill the two pence piece. Those coins are massive and, in my experience, never used except to put in those charity buckets. One pennies, however small their monetary value, at least help you make up odd prices, but twos are always just too much to make up a £2.47 bus fare.

Most likely both the 1p and 2p would go and prices would be rounded to the nearest 5p (so you wouldn’t need a penny to make up the odd price). But the UK govt already said they’re not doing this.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#285

Post by Mountain_Skies »

ghaff wrote: post #161
lostapathy wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US still mints several dollar coins - although the Susan B Anthony coins haven't been minted in over 20 years. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_coin_(United_States)#Sa...

I forgot about the Sacagawea dollar which did solve the fact that the Susan B Anthony coins were too much like quarters. Haven't seen one in the wild for years though. I didn't even know the other two but they're apparently not in general circulation.

Vending machines in post offices were the only place I regularly received dollar coins. Since most other vending machines accepted them, I never had much trouble using them up. The post office has removed most vending machines now so pretty much the only way I'd ever end up with a dollar coin would be if I bought a roll from my bank.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#286

Post by roywiggins »

thekyle wrote: post #274
roywiggins wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's insisted upon by anti-tax advocates, so that Americans always get reminded about exactly how much the government is adding onto the price. Otherwise, the theory goes, we would get too happy about taxes.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think there is any law that says businesses have to add sales tax on separately. Since it's the business who actually pays the tax not the consumer they could just take it out of their own profits. However, the reason I think stores do this is: If store A is selling candy bars for $1 (+ $0.05 tax at register) and store B is selling candy bars for $1.05. Most people would buy their candy f…

Sometimes stores will structure sales that way ("we pay the sales tax" sales), so I expect you're right.

The situation where it comes up is the idea of an American VAT. Because it applies the tax before the store even sees the good, the tax ends up baked into the price. And people like Grover Norquist have argued against a VAT specifically because of that: "The VAT is embedded inside the price of a good (as opposed to the U.S., where sales tax is transparent and on top of the price). As such, people forget they pay it, and European governments have found it too easy to raise the tax repeatedly over time."

https://humanevents.com/2010/04/23/dont-give-obama-a-vat/

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#287

Post by x3n0ph3n3 »

Brendinooo wrote: post #105

The melt value of a copper penny (1982 or prior) is worth more than the face value. However, it's illegal to melt down legal tender currency. AND, fun fact, it's illegal to leave the US with more than $5 worth of pennies, so you can't drive to Canada with a bag of pennies and melt them there. So some people are now starting to hoard copper pennies, waiting for the day when pennies are no longer legal tender, and then…

> it's illegal to leave the US with more than $5 worth of pennies, so you can't drive to Canada with a bag of pennies and melt them there.

What law would that violate?

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#288

Post by Mountain_Skies »

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 always feels weird to tip using only coins in Canada. No one has ever given me the stinkeye for doing it so I'm guessing it's fine but it still feels like I'm shorting them even when the coins are $1 or $2.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#289

Post by 51Cards »

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…

Penny rounding was supposed to balance out, with 0.01 and 0.02 rounding down to 0.00 and 0.03 and 0.04 rounding up to 0.05. In theory it balances out. I don't think even adjusting your prices to get "in my favour" rounding would make that much of a difference as it's on the final total, not per item.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#290

Post by Wohlf »

crazygringo wrote: post #268

Can we get rid of nickels and dimes too? And standardize on a single sales tax rate across the country? And then build that into prices instead of being tacked on extra? Just let everything actually cost increments of $0.25. Let me buy something on the McDonald's dollar menu with an actual dollar. Not with two dollars and then dealing with seven chunks of metal in return. (I mean, as long as we're dreaming. Because i…

>standardize on a single sales tax rate across the country

My modest proposal, do what Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon have all done and eliminate it. Sales tax is annoying and regressive.

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