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Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

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Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#261

Post by mamon »

ryandvm wrote: post #125

The US penny is perhaps the most illustrative example of why I am wary that the US government can do ANYTHING efficiently. The continued existence of the penny is absolutely ludicrous. Here we have something that has almost zero economic value to everyone involved. It costs more to mint them than they're worth. It likely costs more to even transport or count them than they're worth. It is almost entirely just economi…

> It costs more to mint them than they're worth.

That's irrelevant since pennies are multiple use. In fact they probably get used in hundred thousands of transactions in their typical lifetime.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#263

Post by lolsal »

dlivingston wrote: post #207
lolsal wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It costs more to mint them than they're worth. Isn't this largely irrelevant since the producer of pennies makes up for this when they print any other form of currency? > But the fact that this country can't even figure out how to stop making a coin that is worthless tells me that it is probably asking a little too much to expect that the federal government can competently manage anything as complex as healthcare o…

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.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#264

Post by bdowling »

Pamar wrote: post #215
crdrost wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#265

Post by bawolff »

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…

> Side note: If you drop the penny, for the love of $diety change your sales tax structure so that it's a multiple of 5. 5%, 10%, 15%, etc... 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 * millions of transactions per day has got to make some accountants happy.

This 100%. Quebec is the worst - 9.975%! Why oh why. It is so much simpler to have reasonable change in alberta.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#266

Post by SuoDuanDao »

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…

>Canadian government: We think it's a good idea, so we're going to do it.

I think that is primarily a function of having three rather than two major political parties. With three parties, any party that can be on the other side of a controversial issue from the other two tends to win the argument. Hence, we're a lot more biased for action at the government level.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#267

Post by femto113 »

Do not understand why we still mint them--there are enough pennies in existence to last forever, the problem is they are just sitting in jars on shelves. Instead of minting new ones the treasury (through banks) should just start buying them for 2 cents each until enough come back into circulation.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#268

Post by crazygringo »

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 if we haven't managed to get rid of the penny over the past 30 years, I don't see why we'll ever actually manage to in the future. Sadly.)

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#269

Post by donarb »

roywiggins wrote: post #231
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.

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.

That happened in Washington state when Costco sponsored a privatization initiative to allow liquor to be sold by private stores and abolish the state stores. The private stores started advertising the non-tax price with tiny print saying that tax would be added at the register (when the state sold liquor, the price on the shelf included all liquor taxes). People were pissed thinking that the state had been ripping them off until they got to the register and found that the price was pretty much what they paid before. Actually they were paying a bit more, most people didn't read the initiative before voting on it. Now the stores print the total price in their advertisements.

Re: Is It Time to Kill the Penny?

#270

Post by jedberg »

femto113 wrote: post #267

Do not understand why we still mint them--there are enough pennies in existence to last forever, the problem is they are just sitting in jars on shelves. Instead of minting new ones the treasury (through banks) should just start buying them for 2 cents each until enough come back into circulation.

Lobbyists is the one and only answer. The zinc lobby is strong.
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