Earlier quoted context omitted.
If the Pennies go away, you can no longer get things for pennies on the dollar.
Soon one can no longer add 2 cents to a discussion.
I guess my opinion rounds down to nothing now. I guess that fits my track record.
The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia
711–720 of 981 posts
Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia
#712Earlier quoted context omitted.
The article also points out that some states and a lot cities require retailers to provide exact change. Congress would need to pass legislation to allow rounding nationally. I'm guessing in the meantime they'll continue holding pennies from previous years?
So, implement sales tax like Europe does VAT and include it in on the shelf price, and make sure all shelf prices end in 0 or 5. Then, adding up items in a cart will also end in 0 or 5, and the tax is already included, so there is no math beyond the addition that could change the total to anything ending in something that is not 0 or 5. No matter how people pay, cash or card, the price will be the same, and it will a…
America is allergic to baked in taxes - you've got to keep the appearance of a deal even when there isn't one. America also embraces a lot of junk and hidden fees - ticketmaster is a great example of this.
I think consumers would love having baked in taxes and clear prices and were the government functional I'd hope that a consumer advocacy agency could enforce this - but that's simply not where we are right now.
Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia
#713I'd say screw it, get rid of nickles and dimes as well. Quarters can stay, for now. It's a complete waste of money and time continuing to mint such low-value currency. It can't be used for just about anything. Unfortunately, I do see the problem with part of this. For a handful of items where it does matter, it will force people to use cards more if they want to avoid rounding. And the card providers already have a c…
So lets just adopt low overhead (read cheap) wireless QR-based payments like China has? Is there really a good reason to do cash anymore? We don't have to choose between expensive credit cards and cash, there are other solutions out there that are taking over the rest of the world.
The big reason is less government traceability and surveillance. People like cash, we don't need everything to be digital and easily controlled. The fact that China does it doesn't really give me a lot of confidence that it's necessarily an awesome idea.
Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia
#714I'd say screw it, get rid of nickles and dimes as well. Quarters can stay, for now. It's a complete waste of money and time continuing to mint such low-value currency. It can't be used for just about anything. Unfortunately, I do see the problem with part of this. For a handful of items where it does matter, it will force people to use cards more if they want to avoid rounding. And the card providers already have a c…
I know you're referencing more than pennies, but to speak to pennies, I find the current rounding noise in the US to be weird. Likely, it's just more of the media, talking heads, and youtube personalities trying to turn a nothing into something, story. Back when we did it in Canada, I don't recall a single person I knew concerned about penny rounding. Everyone was sick of pennies. No one cared. Everyone was happy. An…
But it's simple to fix: keep all values representable. So get rid of 2c if you have them, or 5, but keep the 1.
Since we got rid of the half penny in the UK there simply isn't half penny pricing. (I do remember 2-for-a-penny sweets though, but they'd probably be at least 5p each now anyway.)
Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia
#715Salami slicing stimulus package
Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia
#716Earlier quoted context omitted.
Allowing gas stations to denominate their prices by the 10th of a cent has always struck me as a just an underhanded and extreme way to practice the "9.99" retail psychological trick. Why not allow retailers to price things 9.99999? Ridiculous.
It's because technically the dollar is divided into Dimes, Cents, and Mil. (this is why dimes say 'One Dime' on them instead of 'Ten Cents'. So while the mil isn't really used anywhere else that regular people see any more due to inflation, it is a valid division of the dollar and that's why they are able to get away with it.
I'd like to clarify that point a bit.
They're allowed to get away with it because of a dysfunctional lobbying driven government. Mils don't exist in the common knowledge and if any reasonable person looked at this they'd call it out. It is useful in accounting but a Mill has never been minted and the last half penny was minted in 1857. It has never been possible using issued physical legal tender in the US to pay a debt of $3.129
The Mill doesn't exist because of some archaic need - it's pure dysfunction and the utilization of it in gas prices is a practice that should and very easily could be made illegal.
Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia
#717Earlier quoted context omitted.
They can add a "total not divisible by 5" fee, ranging from 1 to 4 cents
The other direction avoids a lot of stupid complains. Nobody will complain if the shop gives them a $0.04 gift.
The shop will. It can be a lot of money in aggregate. It also creates really pathological purchasing incentives, where spreading out large purchases over several small purchases can yield significant savings for the purchaser.
There's one exceedingly simple answer:
Keep the penny (possibly a new one that is cheaper to make).
We're basically breaking into jail on this one, creating more problems than we're solving.
Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia
#718Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's because technically the dollar is divided into Dimes, Cents, and Mil. (this is why dimes say 'One Dime' on them instead of 'Ten Cents'. So while the mil isn't really used anywhere else that regular people see any more due to inflation, it is a valid division of the dollar and that's why they are able to get away with it.
Has a Mil ever been minted?
It has not - and it's been more than 150 years since the last sub-cent denomination (the half penny) was minted.
Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia
#719Earlier quoted context omitted.
just make the price a multiple of five cents
State and local taxes make this infeasible
Well I'm guessing that's about to change isn't it? unless you always pay by card, and I don't think that is the intent of this law. I assume they will always just round up and make citizens suck it up, because laws general favor the business and corporate classes, at least the recent ones.
Re: The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia
#720Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't want to be glib, but hey what the hey. This is how you can see that the United States is in decline; it can no longer discontinue a coin through legislation.
Congress seems like the most dysfunctional branch of government going on a couple decades now. They poll worse than the most unpopular presidents
> They poll worse than the most unpopular presidents
I would expect this to be the case generally since congress is at all times 99.5% people who you have no say in electing/recalling.