President Donald Trump says he has directed the Treasury Department to stop minting new pennies, citing the rising cost of producing the one-cent coin.
I mean, this is actually valid. Pennies cost more than a penny to make. I don’t think anyone likes pennies. I wish we’d done this a long time ago; it’s not the first time it’s been discussed. First thing I’ve heard of Trump wanting to do that didn’t piss me off, to be honest.
but for now, lets just toss this on the pile of things he’s doing or saying without legislative authority.
There’s an issue with this in the real world - if enough people ignore legislative authority or some legal mechanism, then it’s not the people who are powerless, it’s the mechanism.
So - he didn’t do a lot in his first term. But his opposition (the one with power support, popular support alone is not sufficient) shat its pants again, after Obama (who’s been even given a second chance by the populace) with Biden and with the exact way they lost the election.
He might feel bolder and actually do things outside any formal authority which will materialize.
Trump also had people organizing for Trump’s second term in a way they hadn’t for the first term. There was no Project 2017 equivalent and the main person with any governing experience around the transition was fired due to a family grudge.
The last coin to be removed from circulation was the half penny, or hay-penny. At the time they stopped minting it, it had the buying power of 18 cents.
We could stop minting pennies, nickels, and dimes, all of which cost more than their face value to mint.
Trump is a fucking moron and a fascist, but rapist clocks are right twice a day.
Edit: I looked it up, and I was wrong. The dime does not cost more to mint than its face value, but the penny and the nickel do. The dime is still functionally worthless, and could easily be removed from circulation without affecting commerce.
Dimes would make a fine choice for the smallest denomination. You could still divide dollars to the nearest tenth of a dollar, which is more than sufficient. They have no buying power by themselves, but a stack can buy something.
Far more? From this article, updated today it says:
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.
From this it seems pennys are 50% more expensive to make in comparitive value compared to a nickel.
I’m not sure the cost to make vs value is really the best measurement, within reason. At the end of the day society gets a tool to measure a unit of wealth to easily transfer, and there is value in having that.
That said! Yeah. The US had a half-penny until 1857. I can look at an inflation calculator that only goes back to 1913, and half a penny then was worth 16¢ today. We don’t need the penny anymore.
megacorps can’t nickel and dime us if we have no nickels… or dimes… economy fixed!
can’t give someone your two cents worth if you haven’t got two pennies to give. free speech should obviously cost more than that, anyhow. apparently that price is somewhere between $15 million and $20 billion.
Yeah it’s weird that people just accept what he says that the value is solely in the face value of the currency. If we stick with that method, it’s only a matter of time before trump realizes how much profit he makes by printing a $100 bill.
It’s a valid thing we should have done a while ago, but can the president actually just do it? I mean, I know he “can” if people let him but, like, doesn’t that in theory require an act of Congress?
I don’t think he can. If he somehow illegally forces the US Mint to stop making pennies, it doesn’t solve the problem that no law allows stores to just round to the nearest 5 cents. Congress would need to pass that first.
Isn’t this largely on stores to change their prices? It’s not like they’d still be selling things at $0.99 and charging you $1.00, they’d just change their advertised prices to be rounded up to the nearest $0.05.
That said, you’re probably right in that he can’t just do it.
Say there is a tax of x and someone purchases both a and b.
The total would be:
total = x * (a + b)
= x * a + x * b
As long as all items result in an amount that doesn’t have to be rounded if purchased individually then the combined amount will not have to be rounded either.
When you do %'s on totals you’ll get something like $11.553
Which is fine for a single item, they’ll round that down to $11.55 but when you start combining them, you’re off. You don’t round individual items or you can be off by a lot, you round the final one (edit: or maybe they truncate it I don’t know).
I assumed that the tax would result in whole numbers but upon further inspection (i.e. trying it out it in a calculator) it turns out that few prices would result in values that don’t have overhanging millidollars.
The solution is obviously to force prices to be whole dollar and to further allow sale taxes only in increments of 5%.
Up to three things now I can name that aren’t insane or 100% self-serving:
Legislation supporting HBCUs
Recognition of the Lumbee Tribe (though some research leads me to think it’s not such a black and white issue – no pun intended)
Ending the minting of basically useless pennies
$85 million is peanuts to the Federal Government, but cash in general is becoming quite outmoded and nobody may even notice if new bills and coins were only minted every other year.
Plus there is a decent chance that there is some devious way of implementing each thing to make them negatives instead of the positives they appear to be. Not planned by Trump, but by the people who wrote and put the orders in front of him.
Whenever I get pennies (or any change less than a quarter, really, and only then because quarters are useful for vending machines), it goes into the ‘Take a penny, leave a penny’ cup or a tip jar anyway. I use cash rarely enough as it is and I hate having change in my pocket.
I mean, this is actually valid. Pennies cost more than a penny to make. I don’t think anyone likes pennies. I wish we’d done this a long time ago; it’s not the first time it’s been discussed. First thing I’ve heard of Trump wanting to do that didn’t piss me off, to be honest.
he don’t actually care about that. he’d figure some way to make 'em cost even more, so he can take a cut of the action.
he’s just got a beef with lincoln… for reasons
but for now, lets just toss this on the pile of things he’s doing or saying without legislative authority.
There’s an issue with this in the real world - if enough people ignore legislative authority or some legal mechanism, then it’s not the people who are powerless, it’s the mechanism.
So - he didn’t do a lot in his first term. But his opposition (the one with power support, popular support alone is not sufficient) shat its pants again, after Obama (who’s been even given a second chance by the populace) with Biden and with the exact way they lost the election.
He might feel bolder and actually do things outside any formal authority which will materialize.
Trump also had people organizing for Trump’s second term in a way they hadn’t for the first term. There was no Project 2017 equivalent and the main person with any governing experience around the transition was fired due to a family grudge.
The last coin to be removed from circulation was the half penny, or hay-penny. At the time they stopped minting it, it had the buying power of 18 cents.
We could stop minting pennies, nickels, and dimes, all of which cost more than their face value to mint.
Trump is a fucking moron and a fascist, but rapist clocks are right twice a day.
Edit: I looked it up, and I was wrong. The dime does not cost more to mint than its face value, but the penny and the nickel do. The dime is still functionally worthless, and could easily be removed from circulation without affecting commerce.
I had a weird pluto-esque reaction, like, ‘aw, but dimes are my favorite!’ I didn’t even know I had a favorite. Why???
I think if it’d be more practical to get rid of them, we should.
Dimes would make a fine choice for the smallest denomination. You could still divide dollars to the nearest tenth of a dollar, which is more than sufficient. They have no buying power by themselves, but a stack can buy something.
A stack of pennies is still garbage.
Sounds a bit too metric to me. The smallest denomination should be 1/12th of a dollar.
They’re small but worth more. That’s neat
This would only make sense if we only used the coin once. It does not matter that it costs more to mint the coin as they are not single use items.
What getting rid of small change does is directly harm the less well off.
Nickels are far more expensive to make compared to face value
Far more? From this article, updated today it says:
From this it seems pennys are 50% more expensive to make in comparitive value compared to a nickel.
I’m not sure the cost to make vs value is really the best measurement, within reason. At the end of the day society gets a tool to measure a unit of wealth to easily transfer, and there is value in having that.
That said! Yeah. The US had a half-penny until 1857. I can look at an inflation calculator that only goes back to 1913, and half a penny then was worth 16¢ today. We don’t need the penny anymore.
We don’t need the nickel or dime either.
megacorps can’t nickel and dime us if we have no nickels… or dimes… economy fixed!
can’t give someone your two cents worth if you haven’t got two pennies to give. free speech should obviously cost more than that, anyhow. apparently that price is somewhere between $15 million and $20 billion.
We know that freedom cost a buck o’ five so the nickle may be next on the chopping block.
Yeah it’s weird that people just accept what he says that the value is solely in the face value of the currency. If we stick with that method, it’s only a matter of time before trump realizes how much profit he makes by printing a $100 bill.
We did it in Canada a while ago and it’s been fine.
It’s a valid thing we should have done a while ago, but can the president actually just do it? I mean, I know he “can” if people let him but, like, doesn’t that in theory require an act of Congress?
I don’t think he can. If he somehow illegally forces the US Mint to stop making pennies, it doesn’t solve the problem that no law allows stores to just round to the nearest 5 cents. Congress would need to pass that first.
Isn’t this largely on stores to change their prices? It’s not like they’d still be selling things at $0.99 and charging you $1.00, they’d just change their advertised prices to be rounded up to the nearest $0.05.
That said, you’re probably right in that he can’t just do it.
With taxes it can be unpredictable as you add multiple items together.
In Canada they passed a law around rounding when they did this so it’s clear set rules.
Edit: they also took them out of circulation. They didn’t just stop minting them.
No?
Say there is a tax of x and someone purchases both a and b.
The total would be:
As long as all items result in an amount that doesn’t have to be rounded if purchased individually then the combined amount will not have to be rounded either.
When you do %'s on totals you’ll get something like $11.553
Which is fine for a single item, they’ll round that down to $11.55 but when you start combining them, you’re off. You don’t round individual items or you can be off by a lot, you round the final one (edit: or maybe they truncate it I don’t know).
Ah, we’re both right.
I assumed that the tax would result in whole numbers but upon further inspection (i.e. trying it out it in a calculator) it turns out that few prices would result in values that don’t have overhanging millidollars.
The solution is obviously to force prices to be whole dollar and to further allow sale taxes only in increments of 5%.
My inner child died a little, knowing there are no 1c candies from my past in your future.
Up to three things now I can name that aren’t insane or 100% self-serving:
$85 million is peanuts to the Federal Government, but cash in general is becoming quite outmoded and nobody may even notice if new bills and coins were only minted every other year.
Broken clocks and all that.
Plus there is a decent chance that there is some devious way of implementing each thing to make them negatives instead of the positives they appear to be. Not planned by Trump, but by the people who wrote and put the orders in front of him.
Let’s hope this is not an omen of rising inflation.
Canada did it years ago.
Ends up being a benefit for companies since they ensure that all prices inevitably round up when you use cash.
Other than that it’s a non issue if you don’t use cash.
Whenever I get pennies (or any change less than a quarter, really, and only then because quarters are useful for vending machines), it goes into the ‘Take a penny, leave a penny’ cup or a tip jar anyway. I use cash rarely enough as it is and I hate having change in my pocket.
Trump having his own rival currency is the omen of rising inflation. We thought congresspeople holding stocks was bad.