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Melting Coins Now Illegal In the U.S.
A number of readers have noted the action by the U.S. Mint to outlaw the melting down or bulk export of coins. This has come about because the value of the precious metals contained in coins now exceeds their face value.
The Mint would rather not have to replace pennies (at a cost of 1.73 cents per) or nickels (at 8.74 cents). The expectation is that Congress will mandate new compositions for some U.S. coins in 2007.
pound-foolish?
I wonder when digital pennies will be worth less and cost more than a byte in a file... At that point, how do we "implicitly value" the dollar, or any currency? Money only has worth because law and people writing the law say so. If it is counterfeited, and spends, and is taken out of circulation, in small amounts and limited instances, how will an economy collapse? Even the US is the biggest, authorized counterfeiter of cash, producing money that often NEVER goes into REAL circulation. Remember the multiple billions of dollars in Iraq alone, in the truck convoy? The US prints and distributes cash to dozens, if not many, many dozens of countries, much of which then sits in a vault, or is loaned to people who don't need it.
Money only has value when your neighbor possesses more of it or more toys than you and throws it away faster than you can earn it. Some people are talented and can make money off of just about ANYthing, while others have lesser imagination and no access to resources (philanthropic, banking, lending, grant-issuing, etc.) and give up on trying to sell or introduce or even patent or copyright something that could be their ticket out of a hell-hole. (For example, I'm sitting on ideas either in my head or on paper, and I cannot do much with them out of fear or disappointment that all along the way, someone or some firm will try to nickel and dime me to death, reassign to themselves my IP the creation of which they had not a DAMN thing to do with, and so on. But, trust has to be found, earned or made at SOME point, so like all other fools or fortunate, I have to take the plunge at some point.... )
Now THAT' when money/currency has value: Those who DESPERATELY need it, but have no credentials, have bad credit, are out of work, or are somehow not in a special category just won't have any without stealing it, begging for it, prostituting themselves, or resisting taxes to hoard every last penny.
Would be nice if every 5 years or so, those who are DEEEEEEPLY indebted are just clean-slated. After all, if they can't find a job (meaningful, gainful, non-demeaning) and the creditor routinely writes off debt to clear the books, the debtor is still stuck with the 7-year (or longer, considering how many credit companies buy up each other or sell files to each other, meaning, effectively you can still be "punished" long after 7 years have passed...) stigma, but the creditor gave up.
Considering how many multiple BILLIONS the USA (read: the power wielding minority of ultra wealthy, their lobbyists, and the corrupt politicians in on the game) prosecuting a war (read: persecuting those who don't "get with the program") but can't find a way to grant amnesty or some sort of significant debt reduction to tens if not hundreds of thousands of debt-ridden students, mortgage holders imminently in jeopardy of homelessness....
I wonder how many times over the major cities' slums could have been torn down and rebuilt to modern living standards.
Penny-wise and pound-foolish...
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
"Maybe I should be shot?"
Another option is to just ignore all the correcting posts.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
There are two types of people in the world: 1) those that can extrapolate from incomplete data.