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The last-ever penny will be minted today in Philadelphia

(www.cnn.com)
460 points andrewl | 8 comments | 12 Nov 25 16:10 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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Night_Thastus ◴[12 Nov 25 18:13 UTC] No.45903609[source]▶
I'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 choke-hold on retailers, and the whole thing is basically a scheme that funnels money from the poor to the wealthy via interest and fees on the consumer, interchange fees, and rewards programs.

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bbarnett ◴[12 Nov 25 18:51 UTC] No.45904256[source]▶
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. And the math seems fair enough:

https://www.budget.canada.ca/2012/themes/theme2-info-eng.htm...

Basically, if something is $1.01 or $1.02, you round down. If it's $1.03 or $1.04, you round up. Rounding is to be applied after all taxes are paid, etc.

Of course, there was also central guidance and, well, everyone just followed it. It's called "having a society".

People blathering on about stores fixing the rounding are morons, there's no way to do so if you buy more than one item. No one gets ripped off with the above method. In the end, it just works out.

And really, who cares?! It's a penny.

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1. ryanmcbride ◴[12 Nov 25 18:58 UTC] No.45904397[source]▶
Rounding is such a weird boogeyman to me because people are like "the companies are just going to use it to get more money from the customers" but, they're doing that anyway. They don't need this excuse to raise prices they'll just do it anyway.

Same thing when people complain that raising minimum wage will increase prices, meanwhile prices have increased for 50 years completely separate from wages. They don't need the excuse to raise prices they're just gonna do it anyway.

If they want companies to not raise prices the only answer is regulation, but regulation is communism and therefore bad.

I'm so god damn tired.

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2. ◴[12 Nov 25 19:04 UTC] No.45904535[source]▶
3. 542458 ◴[12 Nov 25 19:37 UTC] No.45905177[source]▶
> If they want companies to not raise prices the only answer is regulation

Or competition. Consumer electronics are much cheaper than they were in the past, and that's not because of regulation. (To be clear, I'm not saying that regulation is wrong or anything, I'm saying that "use regulation to lower prices" and "remove barriers to competition to lower prices" are both tools in the toolbox.

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4. metabagel ◴[12 Nov 25 19:47 UTC] No.45905368[source]▶
Right. Most gas stations list prices ending in 9/10 of a cent.
5. emodendroket ◴[12 Nov 25 19:51 UTC] No.45905422[source]▶
Let's face it, these arguments are simply post hoc rationalizations. If the proposal were instead to introduce a "milli" coin people would find some way that meant you were getting ripped off too.
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6. hn_acc1 ◴[12 Nov 25 20:59 UTC] No.45906587[source]▶
This. A large chunk of the US population has been programmed that ALL CHANGE from when they were children in the 1950s is bad.
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7. ryanmcbride ◴[12 Nov 25 22:12 UTC] No.45907556[source]▶
Since I'm already doing armchair stuff I'll just say that there's an argument to be made that consumer electronics HAVE to be cheaper due to the extremely inflated cost of essentials right now, which is the result of lack of regulation. It's not the system regulating itself it's just more bottom line chasing.
8. gosub100 ◴[12 Nov 25 22:44 UTC] No.45907938{3}[source]▶
thats a strawman argument