351–360 of 428 posts
We shouldn't kill the penny because it is a reminder that our currency has been inflated and is no longer worth a small fraction of what it once was. Never forget that pre-1965 coinage besides the penny was made of 90 percent silver. A face value of 1.40 in pre-1965 dimes and quarters is worth 20.00 today, the fact that a penny, not even made of copper, is too expensive to make should be concerning.
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> Since Canada changed but left the taxes the same (14% in Ontario IIRC) there seems to be a lot of rounding-off in favour of companies instead of consumers. $0.01-$0.02 per transaction This assertion is wrong. If the item you buy is $1.00, then after your 14% tax it will be $1.14, which is rounded up to $1.15. If the item is $2.00, then after tax it is $2.28, which also rounds up to $2.30. But if the item is $3.00,…
Regardless of what the practice is in Canada, I have zero faith in literally any US business to round down on anything, at anytime, for any reason at all. It will, I guarantee, be round up on everything.
And even if they do always round up: It won't be that much - up to 4 cents per transaction. 125 transactions would only cost you $5 per month - and besides, businesses have actual costs to using cash. No pennies means less time handing out and counting change and less change to get from the bank. Not to mention the savings at the government level.
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Note that you can also, while you're at it, abolish rounding. You already have this in some sense on gas pumps: the price advertised has taxes included so you are not always playing guess-the-final-total with your money. Just pass a law that requires fair advertising of the actual amount the purchaser will pay, taxes etc. included. If there are special circumstances that might make certain people exempt from a tax --…
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.
When someone posted an article about the coin shortage on Facebook recently, I realized that I haven't used cash for a purchase since sometime before the lockdown started. And even before that, my primary use of cash was the collections basket at church—which the lockdown has ended up transforming into a credit card transaction now. Our formerly cash transactions for our cleaning lady have converted into Zelle paymen…
One time I was in Krogers and saw a man buying 6 onions with nickels, dimes, pennies. He took a long time but he bought his onions. I personally don't care one way or another but those who miss the penny the most, won't likely get a voice.
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> Except that if the average transaction is say $50 (which seems kinda low) that means your turnover for the day was $100 million. I don't think that seems low. A grocery store or a bakery probably sees a lot of transaction in the 2$ to 5$ range. But, to be fair, even at 'only' 4 million $ turnover your point still stands.
I don't know what grocery stores you go to, but I've never seen someone standing at the checkout line, holding a single turnip. Corner stores have the occasional sub-$5 purchase, as do, of course, coffee shops.
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…
The rounding only happens on paper transactions. Since most transactions are made using plastic, where no rounding happens, the impact is terribly small. You do realize you’re being guilty of exactly what you’re decrying in American politics? You’re over analyzing a minuscule impact that would result from a change to the status quo.
Personally, I think it makes accounting more annoying for businesses. I say leave the penny as it is, and move everyone to plastic.
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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.
Almost every other country in the world works fine without bait'n'switching their citizens at every single transaction.
In the Netherlands > In 1980, production of the 1-cent coin ceased and was demonetized three years later. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dutch_guilder#Coins > In 1999 replaced by the Euro, and gained 1-cent and 2-cent coins. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_euro_cent_coin The one- and two-cent coins were initially introduced in order to ensure that the introduction of the euro was not used as an excuse by retailers to…
The claim that 0.01€ coins produced elsewhere remain legal tender in the rounding countries, does not hold for Finland. No supermarket is going to accept 1- or 2-cent coins for payment even if you had enough to add up to the nearest 5-cent unit.
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…
I feel like we missed an opportunity to also drop the nickel and round everything to 10 cent intervals and just forget about the extra level of precision entirely. I imagine I will see this in my lifetime.