The problem is you can’t get rid of nickles without getting rid of either quarters or dimes too. Without nickles you would have a denomination (25c) that has no way to be made by lower coins (10c dimes can’t equal 25c). So you either need to get rid of every coin, every coin except the quarter, or nuke the quarter and nickle concurrently and only use dimes, forcing prices to be multiples of 10.
That isn’t the specific problem. The problem is that you need a way to make up the difference between them. Example: If someone pays $1.00 for something that costs $0.35, how do you make change without a .05 denomination?
Suppose you want to buy something that costs a quarter, and what you have is 3 dimes. If there isnt a 5 cent coin, this creates a situation where you have enough money, but making exact change isnt possible, which while not impossible to deal with is bothersome. If we moved to only dimes and no quarters or nickels, it would never make sense to make a price end in 5 cents, so any price would be a multiple of 10 cents and change can always be made. Alternatively, if you get rid of dimes and nickels but keep quarters, then it doesnt make sense to charge a price ending in something other than .00, .25, .50, or .75, and so you can always make change for those prices with the coins one would have.
Literally none of this matters anyways if pennies are going, because making prices end in certain amounts won’t work as nice in practice as it does here for the simple reason that US prices almost never include taxes.
I mean, presumably fractions of a dollar still exist as a concept even if the coins don’t, so if you’re selling something that someone might buy in cash, one could just set the sticker price so that the final price plus tax ends up as a round number, essentially including tax when deciding on price and then taking it out again when making the labels, if one wanted to do that.
Why’s it a bad idea to get rid of coins at this point anyway. What can you still buy that is a fraction of a dollar that actually matters? Anything that cheap can just be sold in multiples that amount to even dollar amounts.
Getting rid of coins and rounding to nearest dollar sounds great to me but I don’t know what the drawbacks are.
“Getting rid of coins and rounding to nearest dollar sounds great to me but I don’t know what the drawbacks are.”
I just want to thank you for having the best analysis that I will see today. You are correct that this would be bad and it is nice to see that you understand that you might not see this.
We would be screwing the poorest very hard by making everything round up. Should we have the person literally counting pennies suffer because you want fewer coins in your pocket or because the “it costs more to make than it’s worth” people are too daft to get that we use pennies many times over?
There’s still some edge cases floating around. Some laundromats, parking meters, using a shopping cart at Aldi, older vending machines, bottle deposits, probably a few more but that’s off the top of my head.
I’ve got a great business idea: I’ll collect a few million dollars worth of nickels and sell them back to the government for 10 cents each. That’s about a 28% discount to the manufacturing cost, and I’ll double my money. Win-win!
Chad walks into a committee meeting to explain why we should end the production of our copper familiar. “LOOK AT THIS PENNY GRAPH, every time I do it makes me laugh”
Death to nickels!
The problem is you can’t get rid of nickles without getting rid of either quarters or dimes too. Without nickles you would have a denomination (25c) that has no way to be made by lower coins (10c dimes can’t equal 25c). So you either need to get rid of every coin, every coin except the quarter, or nuke the quarter and nickle concurrently and only use dimes, forcing prices to be multiples of 10.
Why do you need to be able to make every denomination from every other one?
That isn’t the specific problem. The problem is that you need a way to make up the difference between them. Example: If someone pays $1.00 for something that costs $0.35, how do you make change without a .05 denomination?
It’s the same issue with the penny, you round up or round down.
If you have no penny, when taxes on your item make the total equal to $5.03, you pay $5.05. if the total is $5.02 you pay $5.00.
Sure, but the rounding errors become a lot bigger if you get rid of the nickel.
Turn the dime into 12.5 cents.
Bring back the bit!
The more I think about it, the more I like it:
* I think just the spelling of eighth will spin eurotrash into a tizzy
The problem with this proposal is that it could start circulating on Xitter and then become actual policy
🎶Shave and haircut, two bits🎵
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8leYVnk6Gw
Suppose you want to buy something that costs a quarter, and what you have is 3 dimes. If there isnt a 5 cent coin, this creates a situation where you have enough money, but making exact change isnt possible, which while not impossible to deal with is bothersome. If we moved to only dimes and no quarters or nickels, it would never make sense to make a price end in 5 cents, so any price would be a multiple of 10 cents and change can always be made. Alternatively, if you get rid of dimes and nickels but keep quarters, then it doesnt make sense to charge a price ending in something other than .00, .25, .50, or .75, and so you can always make change for those prices with the coins one would have.
Literally none of this matters anyways if pennies are going, because making prices end in certain amounts won’t work as nice in practice as it does here for the simple reason that US prices almost never include taxes.
I mean, presumably fractions of a dollar still exist as a concept even if the coins don’t, so if you’re selling something that someone might buy in cash, one could just set the sticker price so that the final price plus tax ends up as a round number, essentially including tax when deciding on price and then taking it out again when making the labels, if one wanted to do that.
Replace the quarter with a 20¢ piece. Then you can keep getting rid of the lowest coin.
Just use dimes and half dollars
Unfortunately half dollars are comically large
They don’t have to be. The old silver dollar coin was huge, but the sacagawea dollar coin is no bigger than a quarter
Why’s it a bad idea to get rid of coins at this point anyway. What can you still buy that is a fraction of a dollar that actually matters? Anything that cheap can just be sold in multiples that amount to even dollar amounts.
Getting rid of coins and rounding to nearest dollar sounds great to me but I don’t know what the drawbacks are.
“Getting rid of coins and rounding to nearest dollar sounds great to me but I don’t know what the drawbacks are.”
I just want to thank you for having the best analysis that I will see today. You are correct that this would be bad and it is nice to see that you understand that you might not see this.
We would be screwing the poorest very hard by making everything round up. Should we have the person literally counting pennies suffer because you want fewer coins in your pocket or because the “it costs more to make than it’s worth” people are too daft to get that we use pennies many times over?
Removed by mod
There’s still some edge cases floating around. Some laundromats, parking meters, using a shopping cart at Aldi, older vending machines, bottle deposits, probably a few more but that’s off the top of my head.
Agreed, why just the penny, eliminate the whole decimal place.
I’ve got a great business idea: I’ll collect a few million dollars worth of nickels and sell them back to the government for 10 cents each. That’s about a 28% discount to the manufacturing cost, and I’ll double my money. Win-win!
Chad Kroeger and his fans have been through enough. LEAVE HIM ALONE! LEAVE CHAD ALONE!
Chad walks into a committee meeting to explain why we should end the production of our copper familiar. “LOOK AT THIS PENNY GRAPH, every time I do it makes me laugh”
I assume you’re alluding to this - https://youtu.be/58SrtQNt4YE
He’s not a good source for economic analysis. He has no background in the subject. This would have a fallout that would harm the most vulnerable.
Indeed.