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

The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 151 posts

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#91

Post by ssl-3 »

wtcactus wrote: post #85
ssl-3 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If dealing with the absence of the penny were straight-forward, then there would be no real discussion about it today. We'd already be moving along [mostly!] according to the new, published normal and things would be a snoozefest. But there is no guidance provided. Accordingly, we get discussions. I would like to present this indeterminable discussion (from several days ago) as evidence of the kinds of differing opin…

We are talking about pennies here. I don't get it, what guidance do you really require? Do you think there will be some major cartel by the retailers to rip the costumers off, at maximum, 0.04 cents of a dollar per every purchase in the absolute worst case scenarios? Will we have major lawsuits about it? "Latest news: Costumer sues Walmart for 1 billion USD for rounding a 157.01$ bill to 157.05$"

Me? I don't care at all.

Last night, I paid $13.00 for a pizza that was priced at $12.99. This does not faze me at all.

But there absolutely are people who complain about this kind of thing. I don't have to understand it in order to recognize it, and nor do you: Neither of us were born yesterday, and we've both been in line behind people with these proclivities at the checkout counter ourselves -- observing them argue over literal pennies.

A lack of guidance cannot serve to quell these conflicts.

> Will we have major lawsuits about it? "Latest news: Costumer sues Walmart for 1 billion USD for rounding a 157.01$ bill to 157.05$"

Will we have a discussion that is free of superfluous and undue hyperbole?

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#92

Post by fortran77 »

JuniperMesos wrote: post #72
FrankWilhoit wrote: post #5

Ask {some number of} engineers: You have just been made a free gift of six thousand metric tons of zinc. What do you do with it?

Spend like an hour researching the most efficient way to sell six thousand metric tons of zinc for its scrap value, then do so. I don't need a bunch of zinc for anything I want to do and money is a generally-useful thing to have.

Zinc is very useful! I wouldn't want to imagine a world without zinc.

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#93

Post by wtcactus »

ssl-3 wrote: post #91
wtcactus wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are talking about pennies here. I don't get it, what guidance do you really require? Do you think there will be some major cartel by the retailers to rip the costumers off, at maximum, 0.04 cents of a dollar per every purchase in the absolute worst case scenarios? Will we have major lawsuits about it? "Latest news: Costumer sues Walmart for 1 billion USD for rounding a 157.01$ bill to 157.05$"

Me? I don't care at all. Last night, I paid $13.00 for a pizza that was priced at $12.99. This does not faze me at all. But there absolutely are people who complain about this kind of thing. I don't have to understand it in order to recognize it, and nor do you: Neither of us were born yesterday, and we've both been in line behind people with these proclivities at the checkout counter ourselves -- observing them argu…

But, that’s the thing. Hyperbole is the only way of doing this an issue. Like you said with your example, any minimally functional citizen won’t have any trouble with this.

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#94

Post by jkaplowitz »

zdragnar wrote: post #53
sdenton4 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The register might already do the rounding if it was designed to work in Canada, which got rid of the penny over a decade ago.

There's a bunch of regulations that need tweaking. AIUI, it's illegal to charge SNAP more than other customers. someone who paid cash and gets rounded down technically pays less than what the government got charged. It's only on the order of pennies, I don't think the law cares about that at all.

That one is easy without regulatory changes: just round the SNAP transactions. The SNAP equal treatment rule only requires charging SNAP customers the same price as cash purchases, not the same price as credit or debit card purchases.

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#95

Post by zitsarethecure »

naIak wrote: post #84
TitaRusell wrote: post #81

Interesting how cash money still elicits such emotions. When the European Central Bank announced a new design for the euro bills nobody in my country really cared anymore because most payments are electronic. The danger to that ofcourse is that you risk overspending but retailers approve.

The actual danger is that you’re creating a system where the government will have the power to tell you what you can spend your money on.

It's already a system where unaccountable private monopolistic moralizing multinational middle men have the power to tell you what you can spend your money on.

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#96

Post by pizzafeelsright »

naIak wrote: post #84
TitaRusell wrote: post #81

Interesting how cash money still elicits such emotions. When the European Central Bank announced a new design for the euro bills nobody in my country really cared anymore because most payments are electronic. The danger to that ofcourse is that you risk overspending but retailers approve.

The actual danger is that you’re creating a system where the government will have the power to tell you what you can spend your money on.

The government already has the power to tell you where (local vs bank transfer) and what (taxes, fines) you must spend your money on.

Favors, trust, and reputation cannot be taxed.

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#97

Post by oniony »

ghssds wrote: post #59
analog31 wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the reasons why I changed banks. My new bank has a coin counting machine in the lobby, you throw your coins in, it consumes them, and gives you a slip that you take to the teller. As I understand it, coins are considered a government service. Banks and retailers pay to deal with them. Buying them from the public for face value actually saves them money.

It's so easy to use coins, pennies included, in day-to-day transactions I never accumulate any. Accumulating pennies or other coins is a concept I don't understand. You can spend up to 4 pennies in any purchase you do, and if you don't can't never receive more than 4. For nickels, dimes, and quarters, the maximum is smaller.

When I used to use cash I used to do this all the time. I would nearly always overpay to minimise the number of coins in my pocket. For example I had a bill of £1.63 and I was paying with two £1 coins, I would get 37 pence in change, which would be a minimum of four coins (20p, 10p, 5p, 2p). So I would pay £2.13 to get a 50p or £2.03 to get two 20p coins.

95% of the time the person serving me would clock on to what I was doing but the other 6% it'd take some persuasion, and occasionally they would insist on giving me back my overpayment before ringing it up.

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#98

Post by hilbert42 »

aussieguy1234 wrote: post #73

If the cooper is worth more than the coin, would melting them down be profitable? In Australia we got rid of our 1c and 2c coins more than 20 years ago.

"In Australia we got rid of our 1c and 2c coins more than 20 years ago."

Their disappearance was a damn nuisance for some. We used to drill a small hole in the centre of them and solder them onto semiconductor diode leads as heatsinks. At 1 and 2 cents each they were much cheaper than their commercial counterparts. Unlike the US cent both Oz coins were solid copper.

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#99

Post by ralferoo »

theodric wrote: post #82
mmooss wrote: post #55

This rounds physical currency to the nearest $0.05, effectively. Why not round everything to the nearest $0.1? The math and adjustments (changes to every printed price, etc.) would be simpler. How much for the wine? "$19.9". It seems much simpler to me, though I'm sure it's been discussed ... Is there some item that would be problematic to round to $0.1? I suppose anything that is fractionally priced at ≤$0.05 is now…

Things are still often priced in €xx.99 in Ireland, but since the 1 and 2 Eurocent coins are all MIA, if you pay in cash, you'll be paying the full €xy.00. Most of my transactions are by card, though, and thus not subject to rounding. So why? Maybe the vendors reckon it will work out in their favor this way.

Haha, as a Brit, I have quite a few eurocent coins in my foreign loose change drawer.

Also, as a Brit, if I bought something for £9.99 and gave them a £10, I'd expect change. If they said they didn't have any 1p or 2p coins, I'd expect to receive a 5p coin instead. And when I say expect, I've been offered that a couple of times in the past in that situation, I've never had to ask for it.

Re: The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies

#100

Post by naIak »

pizzafeelsright wrote: post #96
naIak wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The actual danger is that you’re creating a system where the government will have the power to tell you what you can spend your money on.

The government already has the power to tell you where (local vs bank transfer) and what (taxes, fines) you must spend your money on. Favors, trust, and reputation cannot be taxed.

“The government already has too much power, so let it take even more” is not convincing.
Post reply on HN