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Obama Pushes For Cheaper Pennies
Hugh Pickens writes "Time Magazine reports that hidden deep inside in the White House's $3.8 trillion, 2,000-page budget that was sent to Congress this week is a proposal to make pennies and nickels cheaper to produce. Why? Because it currently costs the federal government 2.4 cents to make a penny and 11.2 cents for every nickel. If passed, the budget would allow the Treasury Department to 'change the composition of coins to more cost-effective materials' resulting in changes that could save more than $100 million a year. Since 1982, our copper-looking pennies have been merely coppery. In the 1970s, the price of copper soared, so President Nixon proposed changing the penny's composition to a cheaper aluminum. Today, only 2.5% of a penny is copper (which makes up the coin's coating) while 97.5% is zinc. The mint did make steel pennies for one year — in 1943 — when copper was needed for the war effort and steel might be a cheaper alternative this time. What about the bill introduced in 2006 that the US abandon pennies altogether.? At the time, fifty-five percent of respondents considered the penny useful compared to 43 percent who agreed it should be eliminated. More telling, 76 percent of respondents said they would pick up a penny if they saw it on the ground."
The vast majority if store clerks wouldn't be able to round up or down to the nearest nickel.
Drop the minimum wage to 8 cents an hour and divide all current cash value by 100.
Think of it: 1c hamburgers, lunch for a dime and leave a 2c tip, and your average American home for $1000.
Also, any transaction dealing with a $100 bill or higher will have to be reported....
If it costs 2 pennies to make 1 penny then you have destroyed a penny by making a penny.
In most Euro-countries, prices are rounded to the nearest 5-cent number, 1- and 2-cent coins are quite rare. Why even bother producing coins that are worth more as a material than as a coin?
In most Euro-countries, people don't consider mathematical ability a sign of social awkwardness, as opposed to the U.S....
True it's not a gold standard, but it is some kind of standard that locks the dollar into some real value, rather than have some bureaucrats in Washington be able to devalue the dollar for their financial agendas.
Its rather embarrassing when you think about it.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
I came here only for the penis jokes, but none so far!
`echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
What do you think a $5 bill is worth?
About 12.44 BTU theoretical, 4 BTU recoverable.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
It is the perfect coin for the economy we've been working towards! Come on Obama, make it so!
P.S. The U.S. and E.U. are in a head to head battle for who can print money the fastest, but I predict that China will win this race to the bottom. I have 2 beautifully designed paper Yuan notes, each worth 0.2 cents. Beat that Mr. Bernanke!