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Posted
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msmash
ary 10, 2025 @09:00AM
from the how-about-that dept.
President Donald Trump has ordered Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to halt penny production to cut government spending, according to a Truth Social post on Sunday. The U.S. Mint spent 3.69 cents to produce and distribute each penny last year, resulting in a $85.3 million loss on over three billion new pennies.
The one-cent coin accounts for more than half of all U.S. coin production despite having about 250 billion pieces already in circulation. Canada, Australia and several other countries have eliminated their lowest-denomination coins citing costs over recent decades.
Further reading: Abolish the Penny?
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The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
byPowercntrl ( 458442 ) writes:
Is there really any reason we can't just make pennies out of plastic instead? Personally, I haven't used cash in ages anyway so I'm really neither here nor there on running out of pennies, but it seems like if the problem is just that they cost too much to manufacture, make them out of something cheaper.
byserviscope_minor ( 664417 ) writes:
Or just scrap them as a denomination. I'm in the UK where pennies are worth fractionally more. It is now worth considerably less in real terms than the 1/2 p coin when that was scrapped. I, personally in favour of scrapping copper coinage completely. Round the tally to the closest 5 and be done with it.
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byAmiMoJo ( 196126 ) writes:
I don't even regularly carry cash anymore. Phone generates a random credit card number for anonymity when shopping, that's good enough.
byViol8 ( 599362 ) writes:
"Phone generates a random credit card number for anonymity when shopping"
Huh? How can you pay with some random card number? And no payment method is anonymous , you simply move who knows from the shop to apple/google and your bank still knows you spent money either way.
Also I don't understand people who pay with a phone when contactless bank cards are simpler to use and faster. Just smacks of showing off.
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bypsmears ( 629712 ) writes:
Also I don't understand people who pay with a phone when contactless bank cards are simpler to use and faster. Just smacks of showing off.
For most people I know that do this, it's just one less thing to carry - they'll have the phone with them anyway, so why carry cards/cash as well?
byViol8 ( 599362 ) writes:
Because not everywhere accepts apple or google for payments and if you're phone is lost or stoken you're screwed. Also it means giving apple or google your bank details in the first place.
byjonbryce ( 703250 ) writes:
In the UK, everyone, and I mean everyone accepts Apple Pay and Google Pay. I never carry cash when I go outside now.
byViol8 ( 599362 ) writes:
I'm in the UK and no, they don't. Go into plenty of small cafes and you'll be lucky if you can even pay by card. There's one in Romford that still only takes cash.
byiAmWaySmarterThanYou ( 10095012 ) writes:
You're online, posting at slashdot with a 6 digit uid.
Your computer has an IP, you pay for that access with a credit card associated with your name, address and bank account. Your email is hosted somewhere that also knows who you are. Your every search, purchase, post, article read, hooker hired, porn viewed and everything else you do is logged in a government database somewhere.
What privacy are you talking about? No normal person has any privacy on the net. 99% of privacy nuts fool themselves into thinking they do running a government owned vpn.
It is possible to be anonymous on the net but so restrictive almost no one would do what's required.
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bypostbigbang ( 761081 ) writes:
Or I'm on Tor, the email on an obscured host.
Privacy is fleeting, we'll agree. And some of us try, because it's the right thing to do, rather than give it up to the man.
And we do so diligently, stay out of the system, whatever system that might be. And we don't leave tracks, and leave no trace. Yes, there are sniffers everywhere. The good news is that most of them are stupid, and have only hazy ideas of how to harvest the petabytes of info they already have.
But we're not "nuts". We're entirely deliberate. And often, we're successful. Conversely, sometimes we're not. You can profile my /. entries, sift me, but you don't know who I am, not that I care if you do. Rather, I fight the invasion, a matter of dignity and the right to be as anon as I please, not how you please. You can call this a fantasy or obsession, I prefer: Diligence.
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bypsmears ( 629712 ) writes:
Because not everywhere accepts apple or google for payments and if you're phone is lost or stoken you're screwed. Also it means giving apple or google your bank details in the first place.
Well maybe - just maybe - for the people that dojust carry the phone - all the places where they need to make payments do take payments by phone! And maybe (rightly or wrongly) those people don't have your misgivings about giving their credit card details to Apple/Google. And let's face it, if your cash/cards are lost/stolen, you are equally screwed.
You don't have to agree with their reasons. But they're fairly easy to understand, and there's no element of showing off (I'm not even sure how that would work - hey everyone, I'm doing this thing that loads of other people can also do!) involved.
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bydfghjk ( 711126 ) writes:
" And let's face it, if your cash/cards are lost/stolen, you are equally screwed."
It's not about theft, that is only one problem. Are you suggesting if you can't solve every problem, don't bother solving any? I mean, "let's face it", why bother paying for anything at all?
byomnichad ( 1198475 ) writes:
Funny given that the tech is American. But then the US has always lagged behind with contactless payments.
The "E" in EMV is Europay. Apple just forced any credit card issuing bank to give them a cut in order to enable their NFC chip for EMV payments. They could have just acted as a secure enclave for issuers to directly link an account. Their innovation is marketing and skimming off the top.
bydfghjk ( 711126 ) writes:
"For most people I know that do this, it's just one less thing to carry..."
Except it's not. "Most people you know that do this" need to discover wallets.
"...they'll have the phone with them anyway, so why carry cards/cash as well?"
In case they lose their phone or stops functioning? They need. to have an ID with them anyway, carrying cards/cash takes not extra effort because, you know, wallets.
It's almost as if you think that every app needs it's own phone, at least when it suits your narrative.
byThurstonMoore ( 605470 ) writes:
In the US you're not required to carry ID.
bypsmears ( 629712 ) writes:
I don't mind having a chunky wallet and a phone in my jeans pockets, but plenty of people do... especially if they're wearing a dress or skirt instead of jeans.
Places I've stuck a phone, wallet, or other items while wearing a skirt include a jacket pocket, an apron pocket, and a pouch on a belt.
And did that work for you? Great! But other people may prefer to do something differently, including the people I'm talking about.
Why would they need to have an ID with them?
Existing as a noncitizen, driving, or buying medication.
Non-citizens are not required to carry ID, nor are drivers, and I've never needed ID to get medication. So it's actually pretty common for people not to need to carry ID, including the people I'm talking about.
byAmiMoJo ( 196126 ) writes:
When you pay with Google Pay, and I think Apple Pay as well, instead of giving them your real credit card number it generates a single use one. The bank knows to tie it to your account, but the retailer can't use it to match up with other transactions.
My phone is faster than my bank card. I don't have to open my wallet, and the card sometimes requires a PIN for security, where as the phone always uses fingerprint unlock so never fails to approve first time. Plus it's in my pocket for easy access, and I have
byViol8 ( 599362 ) writes:
"My phone is faster than my bank card."
Not IME. If I'm stuck behind someone struggle to pay in a queue its either a pensioner or a hipster trying to pay with their phone.
"I don't have to open my wallet"
Neither do I. I only have the 1 contactless card, the rest I've disabled NFC.
"The shops are barely worth visiting most of the time, apart from grocers. They have hardly any stock, never what you want. "
Can't disagree with that.
byAmiMoJo ( 196126 ) writes:
It's the other way around for me. It's usually someone trying to pay with contactless card and getting refused, so they have to insert the card and try to remember their PIN number. My phone never fails.
bysarren1901 ( 5415506 ) writes:
You do understand why most brick and mortar can't carry everything under the sun though. Having every known esoteric widget just sitting on a shelf waiting for the day someone needs to buy it is a waste of money and shelf space.
Consider this. You have a 1000 sq meter shop. There is only so much floor and shelf space available. You naturally make money moving product and not storing products. You will want the highest demand items on your shelves because that's what drives sales.
For simplicity sake, we'll sa
byAmiMoJo ( 196126 ) writes:
Sure, but these days they don't carry basic stuff. Stuff that you can easily get anywhere in Japan.
byPowercntrl ( 458442 ) writes:
Also I don't understand people who pay with a phone when contactless bank cards are simpler to use and faster. Just smacks of showing off.
Apple Pay gives you an extra 1% cashback when you use the phone's contactless payment feature instead of the physical card. Those digital pennies actually add up.
bydfghjk ( 711126 ) writes:
"Phone generates a random credit card number for anonymity when shopping..."
If's for security, not anonymity, and it's not very useful for "shopping" in person, it's for online. It's not good enough.
byZocalo ( 252965 ) writes:
No reason why we couldn't in practice, and like the US it costs us more to mint the copper coins than their face value (the Royal Mint is a cagey on the point, but I believe the breakeven point of production vs. face value is currently either the 10p or 20p coin!). Between, contactless, inflation, and self-checkout tills, tranactions where you might use cash in the first place are already mostly a thing of the past anyway, although some people do like to pay over the odds for those special edition coin set
byZ00L00K ( 682162 ) writes:
The pennies are obsolete.
Basically any denomination below 25 cent could be dropped.
As for banknotes - when more and more payments are done with plastics then the coins could take over for the small payments up to $5 while all banknotes can be scrapped. Robbers would then have to run away with bags of coins that slows them down considerably.
byKisai ( 213879 ) writes:
Let's be real.
The rate of inflation since the 80's (when billions of pennies were made) has increased at a level that doesn't justify having the "1's".
Most prices in Japan, for example, even though they are approximately similar (eg 100 yen = 1 dollar), are denominated in 100's. It just means you have to give up seeing prices marked as '99c'. So just start listing all prices in 10 cent increments, and the problem is fully solved. Then one day we can re-decimalize the currency, or remove it entirely, and now everything is in dollars.
Pretty much the only reason why pennies have to exist was before electronic payments so people could pay sales taxes and stores could play games with their inventory control using the 1's digit. Fun fact, some stores use the last digit to indicate to the staff if an item is on sale or not, and YOU can figure this out by finding something that IS on sale in the store, look at the 1's digit and go find other things on the shelf that don't have a sale price on them, but still has the same 1's digit. (usually 4 or 3)
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bykriston ( 7886 ) writes:
American pennies are plated with copper and have miniscule scrappage value.
byLuckyo ( 1726890 ) writes:
I would recommend the Finnish model instead. What happened when we adopted Euro back in early 2000s (and Euro was way more valuable than today) is that we didn't mint or otherwise put into circulation our 1 or 2 cent coins (every nation mints their own Eurocent coins, with number side being the same, and emblem side being specific to each nation for each coin). Smallest coin in legal circulation here was 5 cents.
But other Eurozone countries' 1 and 2 cent coins were acceptable currency as per Eurozone regulation. However by law, companies can receive them, but do not need to give exact change back. Instead change must only be rounded to nearest number divisible by 5 and that change is to be given back.
This isn't applied to bank, card etc exact payment transactions, only to cash transactions. Since rounding errors are half up (ending in 3,4,8,9) and half down (ending in 1,2,6,7), for pretty much any large number of transactions, it evens out and for low amounts of transactions, it's going to be too small of a sum to be relevant. It's a very functional system to take smallest coinage out of circulation for reasons of reducing minting costs, without actually meaningfully impacting economy or fairness in transactions.
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byallcoolnameswheretak ( 1102727 ) writes:
Counterfeiting, durability, even more plastic pollution in the environment... yes, plenty of reasons.
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bygeekmux ( 1040042 ) writes:
Is there really any reason we can't just make pennies out of plastic instead? Personally, I haven't used cash in ages anyway so I'm really neither here nor there on running out of pennies, but it seems like if the problem is just that they cost too much to manufacture, make them out of something cheaper.
One, the world is being forced to eat enough microplastics through our food supply.
Two, the FUCK do you want or need to save the US penny for. They mattered when shit cost pennies to buy.
bythegarbz ( 1787294 ) writes:
Why have them at all? Many countries have done away with such worthless schrapnel and there's been no impact as a result. Heck many good actually got cheaper technically as people rounded to avoid hitting the whole number purchasing barrier (people are far more likely to think they are getting a good deal at $19.99 than at $20, so most such products got changed to $19.95 as a result when 1 and 2c pieces were abolished).
byKisai ( 213879 ) writes:
Just don't make pennies at all. Canada already got rid of theirs entirely. Japan doesn't make 1 Yen coins except for non-circulating mint sets. Australia and South Africa got rid of theirs.
The only reason the penny remains in circulation at all is because the US likes dragging their heels on things. Still no Metric system, Still no Health Care. What is with Americans wanting to be known as the land of the ideocracy (sic.)
While I may disagree on a lot of the moronic EO's he's spitting out, getting rid of the Penny is a no-brainer. The mere fact that it isn't accepted in change/vending machines, and change machines don't give it out, is enough reason to get rid of it. People end up collecting pounds of pennies just to bring it into a bank to have counted by a machine the BANK owns.
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byAskmum ( 1038780 ) writes:
In the Netherlands, pre-euro cents were abolished and every transaction, when done in cash, was rounded to the nearest 5 cent (the next higher coin). Prices were still in cents, but buy one item for 99 cents, pay 1 guilder, buy two items for 99 cents, pay 2 guilders, buy 3 items for 99 cents, pay 2,95. You can game this by paying electronically when the rounding is not in your favour. But really, how much do you gain.
And yes, this was also because the cost of producing a cent was much higher than its value.
Post-euro, the practice continued. 1 and 2 eurocent coins are not used in the Netherlands and every transaction is rounded to the nearest 5 eurocent. Some retail even refuses to accept 1 or 2 eurocent coins even though they are still legal tender.
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byeth1 ( 94901 ) writes:
The annoying thing is, if it weren't for the "this is why we can't have nice things" crowd abusing the system, the government could buy back people's penny jars for 2c each to put them back into circulation, and still save money.
byberj ( 754323 ) writes:
Canada made pennies out of aluminum for several years before abolishing them.
No we didn't. According to the Royal Canadian Mint the compositions over the years were as follows:
1908 – 1920
Composition: 95.5% copper, 3% tin, 1.5% zinc
1920 – 1941
Composition: 95.5% copper, 3% tin, 1.5% zinc
1942 – 1977
Composition: 98% copper, 0.5% tin, 1.5% zinc
1978 – 1979
Composition: 98% copper, 1.75% tin, 0.25% zinc
1980 – 1981
Composition: 98% copper, 1.75% tin, 0.25% zinc
1982 – 1996
Composition: 98% copper, 1.75% tin, 0.25% zinc
1997 – 1999
Composition: 98.4% zinc, 1.6% copper plating
2000 – present*
Composition: 94% steel, 1.5% nickel, 4.5% copper plating OR 98.4% zinc, 1.6% copper plating
https://www.mint.ca/en/discove... [www.mint.ca]
Production ceased in 2012.
A google search does show this AI-generated nonsense, however:
Canadian pennies were made of aluminum in 1973, 1974, and 1975. The 1974 aluminum pennies were 96% aluminum with trace amounts of other metals.
And then as a supporting link it gives a wikipedia page about an American aluminum penny. God AI is useless.
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bydevslash0 ( 4203435 ) writes:
Make deceiving marketing prices ending in .99 illegal and the problem will go away.
bymisnohmer ( 1636461 ) writes:
That would work, as long as making all prices in even dollars (always ending with .00) is mandatory and accompanied with sales taxes in multiples of 5%. Or, we can just get rid of all sales taxes, or make all sales taxes a multiple of 100%, and then set prices in multiples of $0.05.
byZocalo ( 252965 ) writes:
Seems to me that since the government is saving money on the minting costs, any rounding should be applied to the sales tax. If the finally tally is $1.03 then the 3c gets deducted from your sales tax leaving $1.00, and if it's $0.97 then the 3c gets added to it, so either way you'd pay $1.00. Statistically of course, it should all average out for both the consumer and for Uncle Sam, but it'll be fun watching people trying to get their bills a couple of cents over the dollar every time so they can stick i
byradarskiy ( 2874255 ) writes:
"any rounding should be applied to the sales tax"
The sovereign entity producing the currency is not the sovereign entity imposing the sales tax, if any.
"it'll be fun watching people trying to get their bills a couple of cents over the dollar every time so they can stick it to the man"
Not if you're in line behind them at the store.
byPowercntrl ( 458442 ) writes:
Make deceiving marketing prices ending in .99 illegal and the problem will go away.
I don't know if you've just been up late or haven't yet had your morning coffee, but when you're buying several items at a store the total is the sum of your goods and at least in most places in the USA, plus applicable sales tax. So, unless you're planning on passing a law to fundamentally rework basic arithmetic, your idea isn't going to work.
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byPowercntrl ( 458442 ) writes:
I'm gonna turn this over to ChatGPT because you're not getting it:
0 and 5 are the only acceptable least significant digits for item prices if you want to ensure that the total price is never subject to rounding when any combination of items is purchased after eliminating the penny.
Explanation:
Rounding Rule: If pennies are eliminated, prices must be rounded to the nearest 5 cents when paying with cash.
Addition of Multiple Items: To avoid rounding, the total of any combination of items must always end in 0 or
bydevslash0 ( 4203435 ) writes:
See, you misinterpreted what I was trying to say in the first place. I didn't say "eliminate the penny". I said "eliminate marketing prices ending in .99". The problem is not the existence of the penny but it's overuse so the message I was trying to send was "Eliminate marketing product prices ending in .99 and you won't need to mint more 1c coins.". But of course your "smart" AI agent wasn't smart enough to deduce that from the context.
byPowercntrl ( 458442 ) writes:
"Eliminate marketing product prices ending in .99 and you won't need to mint more 1c coins."
The need for replacement pennies is because people tend not to circulate them. They're given as change to people paying in cash (usually entirely in paper denominations), then they end up tossed in jars and shoeboxes at home, and ultimately forgotten about. If the same people who received pennies actually brought them back to the stores and used them when their totals ended in least-significant digit other than 0 or 5, there'd be substantially less demand on replacement pennies from the mint.
The penny shortfall isn't caused by $x.99 prices (which again, sales tax renders a moot point in 45 of the 50 states), it's caused by people hoarding pennies for no good reason.
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bydrinkypoo ( 153816 ) writes:
The need for replacement pennies is caused by having pennies.
There have been calls to eliminate them for decades, so it's not like this is some new Trump or DOGE idea. It's low hanging fruit that should have been plucked long ago, but corporatism always wins in our government and the zinc industry has "lobbied" (bribed) it to keep them because it's a huge source of their profits.
This would be a great move if it was to be done a) legally and b) with consideration for its disruption to businesses, neither of which is true here. But there's no justification for keeping pennies because nothing is cheaper than a nickel any more. It's hard to even find a vending machine which takes those, so maybe we should get rid of nickels too, but one step at a time please.
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bySique ( 173459 ) writes:
And you still don't get it. If your price is $1.00, but sales tax is 6%, your final price is $1.06, and you still need the penny.
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bypsmears ( 629712 ) writes:
And you still don't get it. If your price is $1.00, but sales tax is 6%, your final price is $1.06, and you still need the penny.
Only if you live in a country where the displayed price doesn't include sales tax. In most countries, the price on the item is what you pay, and the shop owner has to do some sums to figure out what base-price-plus-sales-tax adds up to $X.99, if they want to play that game.
byRufty ( 37223 ) writes:
The UK "Monster Raving Looney Party" had a manifesto commitment to introduce a 99p coin...
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byc120plus ( 3825447 ) writes:
The somewhat reasonable rule there would be "Round to 5cents."
Which retailers obviously will round up to, not down, increasing the price of every item by 2.49999 cents on average.
Just more government nonsense that ends up making stuff more expensive, in other words: a tax.
Since only the total of a sale is rounded, it doesn't increase all prices and penny pinchern can game the system, if they like.
This works fine in those European countries that have dropped the Euro-cent coin years ago..
bypjt33 ( 739471 ) writes:
In Ireland I believe they're obliged to round to the nearest multiple of 5c. Since 5 is odd and prices are in integer multiples of 1c, this is never ambiguous and in principle should more-or-less average out in the long term for each participant in the economy.
byvyvepe ( 809573 ) writes:
It works like this in more European countries: Ireland, Belgium, Netherlands, Finland, Slovakia, Italy.
This rounding to 5 cents is done only for cash payments.
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bySuperDre ( 982372 ) writes:
That's exactly how it works already for many years in mamy countries, even before they ditches the 1 cents coin, as for most retailers that was easier amd cheaper then to have 1 cents in store (as it also costs money to buy a role of coins). Round to 5 cents, sometimes it's in favor of the customer, and sometimes in favor of the retailer.
But let's not forget, for digital payments the exact payment still exists. And the x.99 is a psychological reason, as it seems cheaper as the upper rounding number, and ar
byjonbryce ( 703250 ) writes:
I thought the purpose of the $x.99 pricing was to force the shopworker to have to open the till to give change?
bympercy ( 1085347 ) writes:
"increasing the price of every item by 2.49999 cents on average"
Assumes prices are uniformly distributed over the 5 cent interval. Experience shows that most prices end with 9 ($1.89, $1.49, $2.99...). So rounding up 1 cent.
Or, rounding will only happen after totaling the entire purchase, and even a bunch of items ending in 9 will tend to cause the sum to be more uniformly distributed in the last digit, the *transaction* might tend to be 2.5 cents higher every time, (0-4 cents) unless stores round more prop
byTargon ( 17348 ) writes:
When it comes to financial matters, I don't think that the president is empowered to make this sort of decision. This stuff MUST be voted on by Congress and possibly the Senate. Trump has the deluded idea that being president has the powers of an emperor, and it is only because the Republican Party has politicians who are a bunch of pussies who run away from Trump calling them a bad name and are so obsessed with power that have made them "fall in line". Anyone who actually believes in following the US Constitution first have been pushed out by those people who support fascism.
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byViol8 ( 599362 ) writes:
Even a broken clock is correct twice a day. On this Trump is right - whats the point of distributing pennies when cash usage is going down and it costs a huge amount manufacturing and distributing them?
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byTargon ( 17348 ) writes:
It comes down to this stuff the president is NOT the God Emperor of the USA, no matter how much his supporters believe he is. The president can put it to Congress for something to try to enact, but the president can't just declare this and that, we have three branches of government, not just one.
bycaseih ( 160668 ) writes:
But the OP wasn't commenting on whether the idea itself was good or not. He argues that Trump simply has no authority to command such a thing. And this is true of most of his executive orders, including the most destructive and disruptive ones. Which is interesting because Congress is completely in his control and at his beck and call. He could do it all legally have congress exercise their power, and still take credit for it, but he does not. This is a deliberate move to weaken congress and to take powe
byJayhawk0123 ( 8440955 ) writes:
I believe the issue isn't so much if Trump is right, or if we agree with his decisions... the issue is that it's not the right way to go about it...
he's ruling the country by decree, and over reaching. He has undone 100+ years of how power of the office is wielded and congress has shown no concern with the presidential over reach.
What i do find hilarious about this is that the $85 Million dollar amount elicits such a dramatic reaction from people... we lost more money in an f-35 plane crash last week and it barely made the papers... but people are losing their heads over the cost of the penny.
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byPinky's Brain ( 1158667 ) writes:
Congress determines what is considered money, so Trump definitely can't for instance tell them to make it out of aluminium or declare pennies no longer money. But there is no law which directs the treasury to fulfill demand for pennies from banks AFAICS and it is an executive department.
byPinky's Brain ( 1158667 ) writes:
In fact, I don't think the printing stop for large denomination dollar notes went through congress. That's a pretty huge precedent.
Now cutting it off the top has less effect than the bottom, so with a lot of penumbral reasoning you could probably find a difference ... but does anyone care enough about the penny to dredge the shadows of law for them?
bynightflameauto ( 6607976 ) writes:
When it comes to financial matters, I don't think that the president is empowered to make this sort of decision. This stuff MUST be voted on by Congress and possibly the Senate. Trump has the deluded idea that being president has the powers of an emperor, and it is only because the Republican Party has politicians who are a bunch of pussies who run away from Trump calling them a bad name and are so obsessed with power that have made them "fall in line". Anyone who actually believes in following the US Constitution first have been pushed out by those people who support fascism.
The real problem right now lies in the fact that any member of congress daring to say so much as, "Should we maybe take a look at this?" gets shouted out of the room with threats of being censored outright for the rest of the term by the yes-folks in the Republican party who have decided Trump actually *IS* King, not president, and will not do their jobs for fear of being called bad names by the orange monster. I blame Trump for his idiotic moves, but I blame the Republican ass brigade for allowing it to co
bymigos ( 10321981 ) writes:
Maybe start with the $5B subsidy to Tesla and $20B to big oil
byFalconhell ( 1289630 ) writes:
Musk happily gobbled up govt EV subsidies, he just doesnt like anyone else getting subsidies.
bybill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) * writes:
IIRC Tesla is only profitable because they sell those energy credit mandates to other car companies.
The man is literally wealthy on corporate welfare, as I understand the flow.
I would put the rocket company more in the subsidy than welfare category, though taxpayers fund their R&D costs.
bycrow ( 16139 ) writes:
No, Tesla hasn't been only profitable due to energy credits. Early on, that was true, and they're still significant for padding the margins, but Tesla would be fine without them. Now if you add in consumer incentives that vary by jurisdiction (e.g., the $7500 federal tax credit), those don't go to Tesla, so it's impossible to determine exactly how much sales would drop without those, and how much Tesla would drop prices to regain those sales. And if oil subsidies were also eliminated, it's unclear what t
byBert64 ( 520050 ) writes:
Many countries have already done away with their lowest denomination coins.
Hopefully this does away with all the ridiculous x.99 pricing but it will probably just end up as x.95.
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byRosco P. Coltrane ( 209368 ) writes:
Hopefully this does away with all the ridiculous x.99 pricing but it will probably just end up as x.95.
Dream on. It will be adjusted to (x+1).05
bythegarbz ( 1787294 ) writes:
No it won't. For the same reason that everything is currently x.99 instead of x+1. There's a psychological barrier to rounding up that causes people to think something is unreasonably more expensive.
In literally every country on earth where 1 and 2c pieces has been abolished they went to x.95.
byDerekloffin ( 741455 ) writes:
As a Canadian, where Canada gave it up years ago, unfortunately I can confirm that's a big unfortunate no. .99 prices remain very much active. Keep in mind getting rid of the penny does not change any of the digital payment method's degrees of accuracy so unless something much bigger is put in place to enforce no pricing in below five cents and a concrete rule to resolve taxes in those 5 cent ranges, you'll continue to see .99s all over the place.
byPowercntrl ( 458442 ) writes:
If the penny is taken out of circulation then just expect prices to round to the nickel.
Since the majority of payments are electronic these days, I doubt there'd be any pricing changes to accommodate the discontinuance of the penny.
Realistically, the biggest headache to come out of this is that every POS system would need its software updated to support rounding the total when a customer pays in cash. It's not quite the Y2K bug all over again, but it's close.
bygeekmux ( 1040042 ) writes:
Many countries have already done away with their lowest denomination coins.
Hopefully this does away with all the ridiculous x.99 pricing but it will probably just end up as x.95.
byjonwil ( 467024 ) writes:
If the demand for pennies is down and there are enough pennies in circulation to satisfy that demand, why continue to mint more when they would likely sit in vaults rather than being in circulation...
bytudza ( 842161 ) writes:
Let's see, Canada and Australia got rid of pennies ages ago. Probably many more countries.
Boy did I get a look way back when I spent my Canadian one-dollar bills at the drive-thru. "What? What the heck is this? If it's real, is it legal?"
I've got some Japanese ¥1 aluminum coins floating around. Do they still make those?
bysilentbozo ( 542534 ) writes:
As far as I know the 1 yen coin is still being minted as legal tender (and very annoying too when you get it as change, since no vending machines will take them.) Two cool facts though - #1, it will float on water if you carefully place it flat on the surface, owing to surface tension. #2, allowing for wear, it is supposed to weigh exactly 1 gram.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
Supposedly you can get rid of them, up to 20 one yen coins at a time, when paying for bus fare in the automated fare box...
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byFudRucker ( 866063 ) writes:
just round off prices to the nearest quarter, i been at war with the penny too, 1979 and older i keep in a jar, 1980 and newer i toss in the trash, the 1979 and older are solid copper, the newer ones are copper coated zinc
byPowercntrl ( 458442 ) writes:
just round off prices to the nearest quarter
Quarters? You mean those little round metal discs that unlock the shopping carts at Aldi?
bykhchung ( 462899 ) writes:
Just legislate to require shops to round down cents to dime at cashier for any purchase above $1, i.e. $4.99 you only need to pay $4.90. Pennies will become collectors items overnight.
bydrinkypoo ( 153816 ) writes:
How will they ruin this? Besides not providing guidance on rounding before doing it like has already happened, I mean.
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byrsilvergun ( 571051 ) writes:
Donald Trump does not have the legal right to do this. Congress put it law in requiring pennies to be made. Yeah the zinc lobby paid for that law but it's still a law. Trump is not King he is chief executive. Those words mean something. It means Trump's job is to execute the will of Congress.
What he's doing is throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks. It's the same trick Microsoft tried when they launched the original X Bone. Remember how it was supposed to have a writable drive so that they can lock your disks to your console and you couldn't trade your games? It's like that.
We shouldn't let something that we think might be a good thing distract from the fact that Donald Trump is openly flaunting the law. Because there's plenty of bigger and more important laws he's already ignored and broken as president. And yeah he's immuned unless impeached but that doesn't mean he's not eroding our democracy
And mark my words once democracy is gone they're going to stop listening to you. All those things they do that you think are cool and that help you they're going to stop doing because they don't need you anymore. It'll be the last election you vote in
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byOl Olsoc ( 1175323 ) writes:
There have been calls to eliminate pennies for many years. So of all the things to get TDS over, eliminating them isn't all that problematic.
Only downside I can think of is a temporary inflationary effect, as the number of things rounded up will have some impact. Anything pricing out at .01 will automatically become .05. I presume no one thinks it will be normal rounding.
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bystinkydog ( 191778 ) writes:
He should have killed the nickel as well and mad the smallest divisor of coinage 0.1 of a dollar. We need to make room in the cash drawers for $! and $5 coins and bigger paper currency.
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bycrow ( 16139 ) writes:
The President may have the authority to stop the minting of new pennies, but Congress would need to pass a law to have merchants round cash transactions to the nearest nickel. The lack of minting new coins will create a shortage. This could be alleviated in the short term if people turned in all the pennies they have in jars, but likely this will push Congress to enact the required legislation.
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byfelixrising ( 1135205 ) writes:
Actually quite a big list of countries did this decades ago.
byChunderDownunder ( 709234 ) writes:
Yeah I was surprised the smaller denominations were still a thing in the USA when I visited back in 2013.
Their only use seemed to be to leave your shrapnel either in the tip jar or some homeless person's upturned hat. But even then they'd surely each prefer the bigger denominations.
bygtall ( 79522 ) writes:
And yet another el Bunko Bunk Scam is born. He has his own crypto-scram up and running now. The NYT has a story on it remarking how the "insiders" took a lot of profit early on while the proles got screwed again.
byflyingfsck ( 986395 ) writes:
Donald keeps setting up the left wingnuts with losing positions. He grabs onto something obvious and then the left knee jerk reaction is to take the totally dumb opposite position and they keep falling for it over and over.
bymugnyte ( 203225 ) writes:
Donald's biggest enemy has always been himself. Read any number of his biographies. His ego is unable to be embarrassed, win or lose. And so, he can make the most short-sighted proclimations and wave off any questions about How & Why as he jets off to another golf round.
He'll mix things up a bit, raising the power of the Executive to unprecedented levels, and then fade out in a blur of elderly nonsequiteurs. Pennies won't disappear, Greenland won't be a state, and the privatized portions of the federal gov will flame out in corruption, prejudice or bankrupcy. As it has been, so it will again.
And your comment will look as ridiculous as any past administration gloating.
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byClickOnThis ( 137803 ) writes:
Donald keeps setting up the left wingnuts with losing positions. He grabs onto something obvious and then the left knee jerk reaction is to take the totally dumb opposite position and they keep falling for it over and over.
Trump is in the position he's in now, not just because of his own actions, but because of how the right-wing media has supported his narrative. How else can you explain his followers accepting that he actually won in 2020, or that an armed insurrection on Jan 6, 2021 was a "day of love" with tourists just visiting the capitol?
You're witnessing this man dismantling the government before our very eyes. Nobody has seen this before. Who could be prepared for it?
To be sure, the left needs to take a close look at its opposing strategy, but your self-serving strawman is wrong, or at least outdated. Trump (Musk?) is not winning on all fronts. There has been significant pushback on his major steps, such as courts, unions, and other groups working to pause his attempts to dismantle departments, fire and dox FBI agents, and so on. He was expecting a fight, and he has one.
Remember what Steve Bannon said: The Democrats don’t matter, The real opposition is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit. In Trump's first term, and especially in the last three weeks, we certainly have seen a lot of flooding. And a system that is designed to examine evidence before reacting is not equipped to handle the sheer magnitude of it.
Trump and his minions know all this. They're trying to keep you confused as they smuggle their agenda in and weld it into place. Keep an eye on what they're doing, ignore the distractions, and focus on the harm he is causing to the rule of law, and to the American people.
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byClickOnThis ( 137803 ) writes:
No one would or should take you seriously for calling Jan 6th and "armed insurrection". If anyone had a gun they would've been immediately arrested. Guns aren't allowed in DC.
You're wrong. I'll just leave this here. [reuters.com]
Also, it wasn't an insurrection. It was a protest gone bad. Not as bad as any liberal riots, but it wasn't good. Your just brainwashed by media keywords at this point.
Congratulations on learning your talking-points. It was in fact an insurrection. The mob sought to interrupt and prevent a peaceful transfer of power.
I'll leave it to others here to decide who of the two if us is brainwashed.
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byMidnight_Falcon ( 2432802 ) writes:
There were numerous guns illegally brought into the Capitol on Jan 6. https://www.reuters.com/fact-c... [reuters.com]. It is virtually impossible for police to "immediately arrest" people for having guns when they are concealed and the police are busy fighting off a mob who is overwhelming them and winning.
byquantaman ( 517394 ) writes:
Donald keeps setting up the left wingnuts with losing positions. He grabs onto something obvious and then the left knee jerk reaction is to take the totally dumb opposite position and they keep falling for it over and over.
Huh? it seems like most folks here (including myself):
a) Hate Trump.
b) Think that this individual policy is a good idea.
I can't think of many other examples of b), but this is a pretty weird example on which to make your claim.
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bybuss_error ( 142273 ) writes:
Define "Woke", then define "Woman" because you surely don't understand that either. Here is why in two simple examples:
1. The United States does not circulate a penny. We circulate a one cent coin. A penny is not a one cent piece though many assume it is.
2. Trump signed an EO that all government forms must use the sex of a person a conception. At conception, blastocysts are female. Therefore everyone in the US is now female as far as the government is concerned.
During early development the gonads of the fetus remain undifferentiated; that is, all fetal genitalia are the same and are phenotypically female.
A few other facts for those that fail to grasp they are not well suited to make decisions for themselves, let alone others:
Pi is not 3.
The earth is not flat
Shooting a AR-15 at a balloon that is flying at 60,000 feet (11 miles up) is unproductive.
Those that think they are smart typically are not. Those that say they are smart absolute are not.
Rich people typically don't steal from kids dying of cancer. Trump and his children did exactly that.
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byaccount_deleted ( 4530225 ) writes:
Comment removed based on user account deletion
byKitkoan ( 1719118 ) writes:
The real reason Musk wants to shut down USAid is because USAid gave his Starlink millions in support and contracts in regards of the Ukraine war. But then Musk randomly shut down Starlink in Ukraine and other issues with the funds given to them for this, USAid wanted to do an audit to see where the money went and was being used.
Now, suddenly instead of allowing that, Musk wants to them to be shut down. I wonder why he'd want to shut them instead of allowing an audit of how he used their money?
https://oig.usaid.gov/node/6814
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byLordofWinterfell ( 90845 ) writes:
Funny you are reaching to defend only because itâ(TM)s âoeyour sideâ - if any org gave a company money to buy something, and they shut down the program - youâ(TM)d want to know how the money was spent.
I guarantee you that a part of the contract to take USAID money was not hat they could audit you.
And they did because Starlink did something suspicious.
And now he has the power of the deep state, he did what you accuse the left of doing, using his state control to support his personal busin
bynarcc ( 412956 ) writes:
Except in Hunter's case, the exact opposite happened. Link [house.gov]
●- The firing of Viktor Shokin,Ukraine's corrupt prosecutor General was the culmination of a years-long effort by a bipartisan international coalition to address and root out corruption in Ukraine.
● - The removal of Shokin, who slow-walked efforts to fight corruption, only increased the likelihood that Burisma and its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, would be investigated.
● - The false claim that Vice President Biden called for Shokin's firing to help his son was created and perpetuated by Rudy Giuliani.
Every accusation is a confession.
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bythegarbz ( 1787294 ) writes:
And who the hell are they to decide who gets audited and who doesn't? If they feel they've been wronged, they should sue for breach of contract, like, you know, everyone else.
Government agencies don't sue, they audit. USaid is not a for profit commercial private entity.
bygeekmux ( 1040042 ) writes:
OR why not stop that stupid $X.99 CRAP. People know if it's gasoline at $3.9999/gallon it's really $4/gallon. Every retailer can stop the $X.99 CRAP today and just round it up. Retailers would be happy. Consumer Price Index would go up 1/5-1/20% depending on the cost of the item, and no more need for pennies on CASH transactions.
*price tag changes from $19.99 to $20 flat *
(Cashier) ”That’ll be $20.99.”
Its truly amazing how quickly you forgot the concept of tax on goods while claiming “and no more need for pennies”. As if the price tag is your final cost.
byledow ( 319597 ) writes:
This is an oft-overlooked problem with governments and their oppositions.
"You're spending money on healthcare, libraries, schools, social care, pollution control, etc. etc. etc."
Yes. That's right. Because that's what you SPEND MONEY ON. They shouldn't BE profitable. If they are, you're doing something wrong.
bylarryjoe ( 135075 ) writes:
Pennies are useless since they are nearly worthless.
We should also get rid of nickels since they too cost more to produce ($0.13) and are nearly worthless.
I lived in Switzerland 20 years ago. No centimes (pennies) and rarely used a 5 centime piece (unlike the US 5 cents, Swiss 5 centimes were very small and light.
Quoting from this article [yahoo.com]:
"According to the latest annual report from the US Mint, each penny cost 3.7 cents to make, including the 3 cents for production costs, and 0.7 cents per coin for administrative and distribution costs. But each nickel costs 13.8 cents, with 11 cents of production costs and 2.8 cents of administrative and distribution costs. [...]
"During that fiscal year [2022], the Mint tried to cut those losses by making far fewer nickels — only 202 million, down 86% from the 1.4 billion nic
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