President Donald Trump has ordered the U.S. to stop minting pennies. His surprise announcement comes after decades of unsuccessful efforts to phase out the 1-cent coin.
  • NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone
    1·
    12 小时前

    Literally like a pensioner on the bus complaining about the size of small change a they get the fare out in shrapnel, except he’s never been on a bus or handled small change. Maybe they should set up a whist drive in the Oval Office next.

    • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyzEnglish
      613·
      2 天前

      Sure thing, we’ll just move everyone to permanent DST because that makes the most sense and causes the least amount of problems…

      Or did you think we were going to switch everyone OFF of DST because that’s your personal preference?

      • blackberry@midwest.socialEnglish
        4·
        20 小时前

        DST leads to higher heart attacks and more casualties, especially for locations that are closer to the changing arbitrary lines

      • davel [he/him]@lemmy.mlEnglish
        8·
        2 天前
        1. Permanent DST could just as much be considered a personal preference as ST.
        2. Regardless of which is chosen, the “clock” times for anything & everything can simply be adjusted to taste. The numbers on the clock don’t have magical powers. The numbers are arbitrary, only the position of the sun is of real interest.
        3. In ST, “noon” on the clock at least matches up with the sun’s midday position, roughly anyway, given the vagarities of time zones. It keeps as close to what noon traditionally means as possible, without throwing time zones out altogether.
        4. Time zones were invented & adopted because of trains. We need them for our faster-than-horse travel & communications technologies.
        • EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world
          2·
          2 天前

          I leave my clocks as-is and they’re accurate enough through the year, sometimes I’m an hour early and have time to sit and meditate

        • Shdwdrgn@mander.xyzEnglish
          11·
          1 天前

          The numbers on the clock have magical powers as far as what time I am expected to report to work. Most people do not start work at 4:30am when the sun come up (if you do NOT change the clocks), so that would mean more hours of the day lost. If you have the energy to get up early and do things for work, great for you, but the rest of us sleep until the alarm and use that extra evening hour to get things done. Now it’s easy to say 50% of the population is wrong when we look at the current administration, but having the sub come up at 4:30am doesn’t really help you and for most people it means trying to get those last couple hours of sleep while the sun is shining in your eyes. What you’re suggesting is useful for a small handful of people in exchange for fewer hours of good rest for the majority of the population.

          • davel [he/him]@lemmy.mlEnglish
            6·
            1 天前

            The numbers on the clock have magical powers as far as what time I am expected to report to work

            The problem isn’t the numbers on the clock, it’s that your boss is making you show up too early (or late). Whether that time is called 4:30 or 5:30 or 6783465876 or π, the problem is that that’s too goddamn early (or late) in the day.

  • mindbleach
    8·
    1 天前

    Four days until we find out Elmo has some personal conflict with zinc manufacturers.

  • dx1@lemmy.mlEnglish
    7·
    2 天前

    A subtle reminder that it’s not just corporate greed, money itself has actually increased dramatically in supply.

    Anyone else remember when they got their last equally distributed proceeds from inflation check in the mail? Me neither.

    • blackberry@midwest.socialEnglish
      1·
      20 小时前

      hey, so the US government printed trillions of dollars in the last few years, on top of them printing a few trillion the decade before, on top of them printing a few trillion every year since they’re in debt. and that’s just what’s public information on their websites

  • osaerisxero@kbin.melroy.org
    112·
    2 天前

    Ok, this can be his one positive thing amongst his mountain of shit. Even if it is just to get Lincoln’s face off of coinage.

    • njm1314@lemmy.world
      1·
      13 小时前

      He’s doing it solely because he knows it somewhat popular, thus he won’t get as much pushback when he commits this incredibly illegal overreach.

    • nailingjello@lemmy.zip
      81·
      2 天前

      From the article:

      Can Trump really order the Treasury to stop minting pennies without Congress’ approval?

      Yes, according to legal scholar Laurence H. Tribe, the Carl M. Loeb University Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus at Harvard University.

      U.S. code gives the Treasury Secretary the authority to mint and issue coins “in amounts the secretary decides are necessary to meet the needs of the United States.”

    • Raymond Shannon@lemmy.ml
      4·
      2 天前

      Like many things people say won’t be done due to ‘3 branches of government’, yes.

      Besides, don’t we have the hindsight of precedence?

      Canada started phasing out its penny a dozen years ago and urged store owners to round prices to the nearest nickel for cash transactions. Electronic purchases were still billed to the nearest cent. The move came after New Zealand, Australia, the Netherlands, and others dropped their lowest-denomination coins.

      After Canada stopped minting new pennies, it began recycling them for their “valuable” copper and zinc, according to a 2022 report from the Canadian Mint.

  • TheCriticalMember@aussie.zoneEnglish
    51·
    2 天前

    Well this is confusing as hell. I think ditching pennies is a great idea, but I despise trump and maga and agreeing with anything he wants to do feels incredibly icky!

  • TacoButtPlugEnglish
    31·
    1 天前

    I was curious if there were any downsides and asked perplexity.

    Getting rid of the penny could have several potential downsides:

    1. Increased nickel production: Eliminating pennies might lead to increased production of nickels to fill the gap in small-value transactions, which could be more costly since nickels also have a negative seigniorage[9].

    2. Disproportionate impact on low-income families: The poor, who tend to use cash more frequently, could be more affected by price rounding, potentially facing a “rounding tax”[6].

    3. Rounding up of prices: There are concerns that businesses might routinely round up prices to the nearest nickel, creating an informal tax on consumers[1].

    4. Loss for charities: Some charities have historically benefited from penny donations, although modern alternatives like credit card “roundups” may be more lucrative[6].

    5. Environmental concerns: While penny production has environmental costs, increased production of other coins like nickels could also have negative environmental impacts[7].

    6. Potential economic impact: A study in Canada, which eliminated its penny in 2013, found that rounding imposed a small but measurable cost on consumers in grocery transactions[6].

    Citations: [1] https://www.morningstar.com/news/marketwatch/20250209210/why-ditching-the-penny-may-not-cost-americans-much [2] https://www.npr.org/2025/02/10/nx-s1-5292082/trump-penny-mint-treasury [3] https://www.britannica.com/procon/US-penny-debate [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_elimination [5] https://wisevoter.com/issue/why-should-we-keep-the-penny/ [6] https://time.com/7215870/trump-us-penny-mint-costs-one-cent-coin-debate-explainer/ [7] https://www.thebalancemoney.com/get-rid-of-the-penny-4178219 [8] https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/01/magazine/worthless-pennies-united-states-economy.html [9] https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/10/business/costs-of-pennies-and-nickels/index.html

      • blackberry@midwest.socialEnglish
        2·
        20 小时前

        you’re assuming businesses would be honest and fair about their changing prices. maybe some local stores will round down from 1.01 to 1.00 but I assume most major corporations will just round up to 1.05

        • FauxPseudo @lemmy.world
          2·
          19 小时前

          If they do anything as arbitrary as that then state’s Attorneys General will be on them The moment a forensic accountant finds it.

  • DreamButt@lemmy.worldEnglish
    21·
    1 天前

    I literally throw away change. Anything less than a dollar isn’t worth the ATP to carry it

    • piccolo
      2·
      20 小时前

      You know… if you take 100 pennies, you can exchange it for a dollar.

      • DreamButt@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        16 小时前

        Which isn’t worth either carrying them until I have that many or the trip to the bank

        It’s a waste of my time and focus

        • piccolo
          1·
          16 小时前

          Why…would you carry them around? Just dump them into a jar when you get home, when its full take it to a bank and dump it into a coin counter machine.

          • DreamButt@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            16 小时前

            As I stated that’s a waste of time and energy

            I’m glad that works for you, it doesn’t for me. This isn’t a debate

            • piccolo
              1·
              16 小时前

              Feel free to package the coins to me, ill do it.