Okay... I'm Just Going To Have To Come Right Out And Say It...

[arwalden]

... I hate the penny! We should get rid of the penny and just have legalized rounding-up and rounding-down of prices.

DOWN WITH THE PENNY!

[Deja Q]

1. Keep the penny; put Reagan's face on it instead.

You bet I won't be using any more of them then!

[KG]

2. what a relief!

i thought you was gonna say you were gay, or something like that.

[AntiCoup2K4]

22. Or that God's word was revealed to him through a vegetable?

And I don't mean this vegetable..>

[kittykatkoffeekup]

3. penny

for your thoughts? Oops, never mind, my bad!

[VelmaD]

4. Sorry...gotta disagree...

becuase they would NEVER EVER round down. Those nickels start to add up after a while.

[Dan-W]

6. Bingo!

[Lars39]

5. Why do you hate copper?

:)

[Dan-W]

7. And there's been less copper

to hate since 1982. The mint found that it cost them more than a penny to create a penny. They lowered the copper content and raised the zinc content.

Edit for clarification.

[Lars39]

8. So any penny past 1982 has less copper,

and more...what? What's the filler? Nickel? :shrug:

[Dan-W]

10. Yes, sorry, see my edit on #7.

[GOPFighter]

9. And could we please go to dollar coins?

Dollar bills cost a bundle to print and only last 18 months. Dollar coins would last 20-25 years.

[TyeDye75]

11. I have a pound coin in my pocket from 1988

[Book Lover]

13. We have dollar coins

I love the Sacagawea gold dollar coin - it's like I have gold pieces!

[AntiCoup2K4]

23. And when you buy a book of stamps from a Post Office vending machine....

...with a $20 bill, it sounds like you hit the jackpot in Vegas.

[tammywammy]

30. But the dollar coins aren't utilized

because we still have the bills. I say get rid of the bills, and force everyone to just use the coins.

On a side note, I worked in coffee shops for 4 years. And people hate those gold coins, so they'd pay for their coffee with the coin. Good. Well, then when someone was getting like $8 back, I'd slip them a coin. The customer would throw all their change in the tip jar. I effectively learned a way to increase our tips, they wouldn't count their change and the dollar would go in the jar. :) But if someone was only getting $6 back, and you gave them a coin, they would ask for a bill.

[Dave Sund]

12. The West Wing - "War Crimes"

;)

[1monster]

14. But then how would music departments and other unfunded school

programs raise money? My son's middle school music department is currently in the middle of a penny drive and those five gallon water bottles are starting to fill up nicely.

All those pennies add up considerably and that is a good thing.

By state law in Florida, school districts do not fund the music programs. The school district can pay the music teacher, but does not buy music, instruments, or any other necessities of the program. The parents and the students, along with the music teachers, spend a lot of time fund raising just to keep the music departments up and going........

[autorank]

15. Great post. The penny has become pure evil, a scourge in my pocket.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

16. Then when prices rise, they will rise more precipitously

If the price of gas rises by the nickel so will everything else and that means MORE dollars spent for poorer people

[arwalden]

19. I suppose if someone was buying 2-cents worth of gasoline...

and ended up paying 5-cents, that would suck. But the final cost of the tank of gas would be rounded up or down to the nearest 5-cent increment.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

21. True..but if you make 25K a year and everything dependent on oil

gets rounded up to the nearest nickel such as lettuce, milk, meat etc...then when oil goes up a nickel, everything else goes up..wages of course would remain stagnant since the cost of doing business would rise.

The elimination of the penny would hit the poorest the hardest.

[arwalden]

24. Rounding up (or down) 2.5 cents per fillup...

... will hardly bring about the dire results that you're predicting. The rounding would occur per TRANSACTION not per ounce and not per item.

[miss_kitty]

28. never down only up

Whenever monetary systems are changed, the public always gets bent over. The poor always get the deepest part of the shaft. Why? because the percentage of new costs are greater to someone netting $10k per year than to someonone who nets $50k per year.

[KittyWampus]

17. I've Found About Twenty Pennies In The Last Couple Of Days.

Embrace the penny, Allen. :)

Actually, I think it's sort silly too. But I still pick them up and use them.

[gmoney]

18. Don't worry... economic collapse will rid us of the penny...

When the day comes that it takes a wheelbarrow full of dollar bills to buy a loaf of bread, nobody's going to worry about exact change.

"...god won't take the time to sort your ashes from mine..."

[supernova]

20. I participate in the give a penny; take a penny program

Whereby the cashier at your purveyor of choice has a penny bowl on their counter. If you need extra pennies for your total and you don't happen to have any change, you take the few you need. The next time you have pennies, leave them in the bowl for someone else who needs them.

That's the only way I keep from accumulating too much change. I am very slow in the checkout. So to avoid holding everyone else up, I usually wind up giving dollar bills and always getting change back.

[miss_kitty]

25. no. we need the penny

The poor would be fucked by a 'no penny' status. There would be no 'rounding down'

If you don't like them, put them in the 'take a penny' thinger, or use some pennies from there when you need them.

[Lorien]

26. Yep. The GOP suggested getting rid of the penny

during Clinton's second term, but the dems nixed it because it would have really screwed the poor in this country.

I've been poor enough at times that I needed to take pennies to the bank just to get enough cash for a meal. :-(

[HEyHEY]

27. They did it in austrailia

seems to work

[tjwmason]

29. Bring back the Farthing say I

This was quarter of an old British penny, the old penny was 1/240 of a pound - this would make a farthing worth roughly $0.005 at current exchange rates.

It would also totally confuse us all as we'd have to go back to a non-decimal currency system - but that system had the completely wonderful advantage of being marked as Lsd.

Oh, and by the way, if America is going to alter its currency - may I humbly suggest that you actually make the various notes look different from each other.

[tammywammy]

31. Use your change

I do. I don't care if I keep up the line another few seconds. I carry a little wallet, so I don't have room for change. When I'm getting ready to pay, I pull out all my change, (which really isn't ever much) and have it on standby for the total.

I always use my change.

[maveric]

32. Prices should be rounded off to the closest 50 cents.

We dont need no stinking pennies!