Whitehouse.gov petition to eliminate the penny

https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/eliminate-penny/m0yjLbC9

by martingordon • 14 years ago

6 9 14 years ago

wwws.whitehouse.gov

aw3c2• 14 years ago

Please no political activism on HN. There is not much interesting on the linked site so I assume this was submitted as call for participation.

user242• 14 years ago

You have to have a lowest common denomination coin. Otherwise when I give $1 to the 99c store, what will they give me in change?

Or is the idea that every single business in the entire USA will change their pricing structures to multiples of 5? Good luck with that!

martingordon• 14 years ago

There's plenty of precedent for it in other countries: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penny_debate_in_the_United_Stat...

orcadk• 14 years ago

Lots and lots of countries don't have that, and it's no problem. The smallest coin we have in Denmark is the 0.5 Kroner one, worth roughly 10 cents. If you have to pay 1.24 Kroner, you pay 1 and if you have to pay 0.75 Kroner, you pay 1. You win some and you loose some - evens out in the long run.

user242• 14 years ago

> You win some and you lose some - evens out in the long run.

I believe you that it works, but I'm totally shocked at this... surely everyone just starts rounding up to .75? It will add up! You've literally blown my mind with this; how do people carry on like this? It's like you've just told me up is down and down is up, I just do not comprehend at all how people can use this system?

Seriously, I know that sounds sarcastic but it's just thrown my brain.

GiraffeNecktie• 14 years ago

Why stop at the penny? Isn't it about time we rid ourselves of all these filthy, wretched little buttons? Let's leave the 19th century behind us and begin gradually phasing out the whole anachronistic lot: pennies, nickels, quarters and (in Canada) loonies and toonies.

Whitehouse.gov petition to eliminate the penny

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