Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

321–330 of 428 posts

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#321

Post by chillwaves »

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.

I assume menu prices also different from state to state, city to city. Not sure I see the issue.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#322

Post by streb-lo »

fatbird wrote: post #147
talideon wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What you're leaving out, in Canada's case, is that the norm is a strict party-line vote. In rare cases, the PM will allow a "conscience vote", where individuals vote as they will; in every other case, you vote as your party directs or you're kicked out of the party. As party-line voting is the norm, sitting as an independent is basically worthless in terms of accomplishing anything--no access to party resources or as…

This all very true but I just wanted to add one more thing I think is a strength of parliaments.

In a parliament majority, the buck stops with the Prime Minister and win or lose his performance is on the line in the next election. There's no (effective) hand-waving about opposition or other excuses to deflect accountability. Elections are a black/white referendum of the incumbent's performance.

In the US it's a lot easier to muddy the waters and a lot harder for people to arrive at a clear conclusion and often nobody is happy.

"YES I don't like X BUT it wasn't Y's fault it was Z"

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#323

Post by beervirus »

dutch3000 wrote: post #318
beervirus wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think of all the time that everyone would save going forward not having to deal with pennies. It's worth spending some time up front for a benefit like that.

i reject a future driven solely by efficiency. therefore, i support the penny.

That's fine. But "nobody should waste time on contemplating such a question" doesn't make much sense.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#325

Post by paxys »

MH15 wrote: post #93

At some point us in the US will have to figure out how to cope with the issues our Democracy has with making changes and overcoming momentum. It seems our government is uniquely unsuited in this capacity in comparison to other modern democracies as seen with healthcare, income inequality, and the recent pandemic response.

It's more about overcoming lobbying than momentum.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#326

Post by gojomo »

InitialLastName wrote: post #295
gojomo wrote: post #221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There would be no fraud in scratching 'ONE CENT' off of pennies that were, by law, worth 5¢. But also, when was the last prosecution for defacing a coin in the United States? What sort of monster would call the police on a fellow person for passing a damaged penny? How would the prosecution's burden of proof be met? (Be a currency hacker, like Satoshi or Woz – https://hackaday.com/2012/08/03/woz-prints-and-spend-his-…

How is Woz a currency hacker in that link? He literally just buys sheets from [0] and glues them together. [0] https://catalog.usmint.gov/paper-currency/uncut-currency/

The $2 bills are currency. He recombines them to create funny & thought-provoking situations, including encounters with local police & Secret Service, that test the boundaries of what's allowed & what's trusted.

What other definition of 'hacking' do you use?

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#327

Post by rhino369 »

chillwaves wrote: post #321
bdowling wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I assume menu prices also different from state to state, city to city. Not sure I see the issue.

It makes it impossible to do mass marketing with prices. Best Buy can send a flyer saying "Xbox One Only 199.99!" to everyone in Illinois. But if they had to include tax, it would be 219.99 or 214.99 depending on which side of my town you live in because they tax rate changes.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#328

Post by [deleted] »

gojomo wrote: post #247
ngngngng wrote: post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So I should start collecting pennies then, yes? 500% returns you say?

I do think enough people believing this could happen, and thus hoarding pennies, could increase its likelihood. It'd grow a popular constituency for the rebasing, and create a change shortage that's most-easily addressed by incentivizing the release of instantly-more-valuable penny hoards. Fill your jars, then pass the idea on! (Does anyone know someone high up in this '4chan' memetic-prankster cooperative I keep hea…

[deleted]

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#329

Post by grawprog »

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…

>Canada stopped producing pennies in the fall of 2012. [0] The sky didn't fall.

True, but part of me still misses it. Not for any real functional reasons. The rounding issue is really nothing and seems to work out pretty evenly from what I can tell, not that I've really bothered to try and figure it out.

I guess it's more sentimental reasons really. It feels odd not being able to count cash to an exact cent. You can now only hold cash up to the nearest 5¢, again not a big deal, but it just makes cash feel more second class. Then there's things like those fountains people would toss pennies into, or the whole find a penny pass it on for good luck thing, or the various phrases involving pennies. 'A penny for your thoughts and such'. These are all things that'll kind of vanish from public thought.

I dunno, these are just some things i've thought of over the years since they got rid of pennies.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#330

Post by gjs278 »

tacocataco wrote: post #119

All I want is for all paper cash to be plastic so I can wash the covid off of it. I support getting rid of the penny, but I feel that plastic cash would make more of a difference. CGP Grey has a wonderful video on the penny, he is my favorite YouTuber. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=y5UT04p5f7U

if you think you are going to get covid from paper cash, you’re a paranoid germ freak. it’s not even worth living in with worldview like that. just touch the paper.
Post reply on HN