Please tell me why

[Smokebender]

Someone please tell me why the US government produces pennies and nickles when the fact is it costs more than one cent to produce one penny, and more than five cents to produce one nickle? This type of thing makes my head hurt. If you have any idea please explain and help stop my pain. Then post your question if you have one. Don't we all have a question? 

[Truthsayer]

I have never known any government to use logic or reasoning in any of their ideas and intentions. It would seem to defeat the purpose, but if it keeps people in jobs and paying taxes, maybe there is a reason.   

Why was the 2004 "Summer Olympics" held in Austrailia in august 2004, in the middle of the Austrailian "winter"?

[misfitguy]

Gee, let me get in on this one.  A couple of years ago, I bought something like $147.01 at Wal-Mart.  I counted out the dollars exactly and with a straight face, I told the clerk I didn't have a penny.  She had a fit and was in the process of calling her manager.  I found a penny to relieve her anxiety and asked her if I hadn't found a penny would she have processed the sale?  And she said she wouldn't have.  I would have had to put something back.  This blew my brain.

When I was in High School, the Franc was depreciated by two decimal points.  They simply moved the decimal point over two places and something that had cost the French 10,000 Francs one day, now cost them 100 Francs.  It was simple and complete.  I have been advocating this for a few years now.  I used to buy penny candy.  In fact, we had 2 for a penny candy, even.  Now these same candies cost 10 cents or more.  Candy bars were 5 cents and 10 cents, depending on the size.  Now they are, what, 69 cents and a $1.29, or something like that.  A movie on a Friday or Saturday evening cost $1.00 for an adult.  Gas was 27 cents to 32 cents. 

When I graduated from college in 1972, I looked at a new Monte Carlo, a car that was just being introduced, and they were asking over $4000.  I could buy a Chevrolet Impala for about $2700. 

You see, if you multiply these prices by 10, you seem to be quoting the current prices today.  I suggest we simply move the decimal one point to the left and the penny and the nickel will have value again.  \

Mick

[Smokebender]

How would they have value again? It would still cost more to make them than they are worth, would it not?

[misfitguy]

I don't know, since the cost to make them would be 10% of the cost today after depreciation.  There has always been an argument out there that pennies shouldn't be made because it costs more to make them than a penny.  Since a penny is simply a marker, the government isn't trying to make a profit when they make the coin.  One of the things that a government does is to make money so that we can use it for exchange.  We pay taxes to get that done and, actually, the cost of making a penny has little meaning when comparing its worth as a marker.  An example would be does it cost more to make a hundred dollar bill than a dollar bill?  If they both cost the same to make, then you can see the cost of production has nothing to do with its worth.

Mick

[Smokebender]

It's true that the government isn't trying to make a profit, and that's my point. They should be. The penny is just one very small example of large government waste. I fail to see the value of a penny even as a marker. At Walmart they see the value.

[misfitguy]

A penny would have more value if it could buy something and it could if we depreciated the value by one decimal point.  The government should never be in business to make a profit.  It is another right wing argument that one hears.  It is ludicrous.  Government is of the people, by the people.  It will cost us for the services it provides.  That is why we tax ourselves.  We are in financial difficulty today simply because the bush administration gave huge (in dollars) tax breaks and waged a costly war that was never in a budget.  We have spent nearly a trillion dollars on these wars and they were never budgeted or paid for.  The right wingers, though, claim that we can reduce taxes again and that will get us out of the hole.  Can you believe that?

Our monetary system is based on a 2 place decimal.  We need the penny, nickel, dime, quarter and half dollar for it to work.  The half dollar became heavy and bulky and vending machines wouldn't take them, so a couple of generations lived without them and so we may never see a need for them.  But when a person worked for $.50 an hour ( I did), a half buck meant something.  It is all relative.  The penny can again have meaning, but we would have to depreciate the dollar.  It is that simple.

[Smokebender]

I see your point. Poor choice of words on my part because I agree the government should never make a profit.
I just hate watching them waste our money on things like pennies. By the way, I'm so far left I fell of the rim.

[misfitguy]

Concerning your leftyness, I had felt certain of that.  Be warned, then, that the neo-con right will try to use fallible arguments like the penny isn't worth making to get your attention.  They are doing it now with the Stimulation Package.  They are speaking about waste and tax cuts and getting the ears of some people.  The fact is, by the most conservative expert, the only waste or excess that has been found in this 8.2 billion dollar is less than 1% of the whole.  And concerning tax cuts.  That is what got us here along with excessive spending by the GOP.  So the GOP right now is saying they have good ideas that should be included in the Stimulation Package.  They include tax cuts for business (they call small businesses any company with a payroll of less than 1000 people) and investors.  They also say that we cannot pull ourselves out of this mess by spending.

The new GOP Chairman, today, said, and I quote, "There is no government, in the history of mankind, that has ever created a job."  That is what he said and I can't believe they are going to try that argument.

Anyway, Sorry for going off on a rant, but fallible arguments are irritating to me.  Arguments like we should eliminate NASA because it is not productive.  So therefore it is useless and wasteful.  That is a fallible argument.  NASA doesn't produce food and never will.  It is a scientific group that is studying the questions that all of us want to know the answers to.  Oops, here I go again.

[Smokebender]

"Your Leftyness" now I like that, but I'll stick with Smokebender. 

I'm thinking the GOP doesn't have jack to say about anything at this time.
The GOP Chairman is a joke as you noted in a round about way.

NASA will grow food, just not on earth.

Rant all you want you wild MisFit. It's your place to do so, and we enjoy it.