[URL="http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/CNBCTV/Promos/P152096.asp?GT1=8376"]http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/CNBCTV/Promos/P152096.asp?GT1=8376[/URL]
I can't say I'd have much trouble adapting, but it's not like it's going anytime soon. Still, it'll be pretty big if it does go sometime, much bigger than the $2 bill.
I doubt much people would have a money problem IF the penny is taken away, but what are they going to do about things that are priced $.41?ZoMG!! lol jp. Eitherways, I still don't think it will affect much people.....unless they have been saving up pennies for like 30 years and have like a million dollars in pennies....uh-oh....OH! and btw I have a 2 $2 bills lol.
No, the main reason it'd be big is that the prices of goods and sales taxes will have to be reformed.
Taking away the penny means all the taxes get changed from whatever your percent is (New Jersey has 6% and we're going to 7% soon I think), to most likely 10% because there'd be no penny to compensate for 6 cents on the dollar. You buy something that costs a dollar, plus tax, that's a dollar and six cents. You can't pay six cents because there's no penny, and you can't get change for a dime because there's no penny.
If it did happen, we'd all be ****ed with taxes up our *** and all those fancy corporations (like the gas companies for example) would be sitting on toilets made of gold and ****ting on our dollars.
EDIT: *** ****it Iris, the first intelligent thing I say and you ruin it by posting faster. I hate you =(
Even if they stopped producing pennies right now, there are enough in circulation that we wouldn't have to worry about rounding numbers and price/tax changes for quite some time. I'd veture to guess that it would take at least 10-20 years before we even noticed any sort of difference.
What's with Americans and wanting to get rid of coins? Canadians can't get enough of that ****.
[quote]If it did happen, we'd all be ****ed with taxes up our *** and all those fancy corporations (like the gas companies for example) would be sitting on toilets made of gold and ****ting on our dollars.
I REALLY hope you are kidding, since the sales tax that companies collect goes to the state government in question. And since New Jersey had its entire government shut down for a while since your state legistlature couldnt get its head out of its own ***, I should hope that you would be a little more aware of things.
Second, there is no reason to keep the penny around. The little increase that would be present would be more than compensated for by the fact that the penny is the only currency in the world that costs more to make and upkeep than it is worth. Seriosuly, melt a penny down into its constituents and sell it and you get something like 1.3 cents per penny. They are a complete waste of space.
Would someone mind explaining something to me real quick?
Alright, I understand the goverment makes our money and such, I saw one of these places in New York on a field trip during third grade or something. Anyway, if the goverment is the one making our money, and they need to pay people to perform all these tasks as well as other companies for the supplies to make the paper, why can't we just make an endless supply?
The entire concept just boggles my mind. I can understand it, how they make a ton of money and it becomes worthless because there is so much, but why would it matter if there was a lot? It's not like people are just getting handed buckets of money, it'd all be in some huge safety deposit box...sort of like Fort Knox.
Unless there is something I'm missing, which is why I ask.
There are only so many resources in the world, and since the people in charge arent going to just wave a wand and make everyone equal, as more money is printed its value decreases accordingly.
You can't just make an endless supply and not make any more. Eventually they'll become dirty and unacceptable, people may dispose of them or keep them, intentionally or not, or they'll just be lost. The government can't go and salvage these, so it has to constantly make more.
I personally don't carry many coins around, especially not pennies. I don't think many problems will arise for consumers. The main problem is will be changes in price for almost everything once pennies start being circulated less.
I can see where the government could easily make a profit on this. Now, it wont be something anywhere near as idiotic/drastic as what someone said about states having to raise sales tax from 6% or whatever it may be in your state to an even 10%, because...how often is something priced at exactly one dollar. That statement made no sense at all. A 70 cent candybar with tax, is still going to run you guess what?....77 cents!
Obviously if you dont have pennies you cant make 42 cents exact change...and you know those bastards arent going to round down, so you can pretty much expect getting ****ed in the *** on that spectrum.
Consider it as another step towards america going entirely to credit/debit based currency. Do i think or want it to happen, not really. Its just a thought. It would inhibit a few illicit activities though. honestly, where you going to swipe your card when you want to buy an ounce of weed or an 8ball. Small time drug dealing would be rendered nearly impossible with no paper money.
We got rid of our 1c and 2c coins about 15 years ago and it was no great drama. What happens at is everything just gets added up normally then at the end of the transaction if you pay cash you round up or down to the nearest 5 cents. Easy.
The simple solution to the sales tax issue is to pass a law that sales tax must be included on the sticker price of items. That way you know exactly what you're paying at the point of sale, and you dont fumble with change. It'll also lead to shops changing their prices so that they're round numbers inclusive of sales tax. I know, it's a rdical concept--what it says on the sticker is actually what you pay but I'm sure you guys can handle it.
Also, the main source of the save the penny campaign is the zinc industry.
I'd rather the government just loose money and mint pennies than pay higher taxes, because nobody is going to round down. If people are annoyed by money, that really goes to show what sort of people we are.
I don't tote pennies on my person regularly, but as I don't smoke in my car, I use the ashtray for coins and if I know that the item I plan to purchase is say, $5.78, then I'll grab a five, three quarters and pennies. And then I use them. Exact change is fun.
Anything that contributes to higher use of the M2 system (credit and debit cards, checks, etc) probably isn't good either because the systems it runs on are old and usually running at capacity as it is.
As far as the pennies being a loss to mint, they could just make them out of something else or y'know, cut out HUEG and less-than-worthwhile spending on things like FEMA, parts of the defence budget, etc.
The tax thing makes no sense. They could keep it (nearly) the same as it is now. Say you pay 7%, and the total comes to XXX.57, they could just round it to the nearest five, so XXX.60. No reason to increase the tax to the nearest five.
Four cents of change for each change transaction at each store across the country says loss, so everything will go up (because they certainly won't go down) and the economy will benefit because people pay more. :)
I don't get this assumption that "no-one will round down". This is probably because they do here. You round to the nearest 5 cents... 57 goes to 55, 58 goes to 60. These days they even have these magical things called com-pu-tors which do the rounding for you.
On balance it averages out. Why would any business risk antagonising people (and they would be... anyone who's worked a cash register knows that) by rounding up instead of rounding to the nearest 5 cents? That's just mental.
[QUOTE=Dark Kirby]Heh, in the UK we have a