Re: Canada says no plan to get rid of the penny soon

On Tue, (Scott Stevenson) wrote:

There are only 5 states with no sales tax: Alaska, Delaware,
Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon. That's only about 2.3% of the US
population. For nearly 98% of the population, that scenario is never
even going to come up.

What? Is there any state that has a sales tax on FOOD?

Even if you're correct, and people would bitch and moan about paying
the extra cent (most prices end in 9, so even if those merchants
rounded the prices up, it would only be one cent) they would quickly
catch on that it's due to rounding.

Good merchants avoid anything that causes discontent,
people are more temperamental than cows.

Also, don't forget that sales is a competative business. If there's
that much of a hue and cry, some merchant is going to realize it, and
set the prices so that it ends up being cheaper.
take care,
Scott

That would be fine if there was a reason for it, there isn't.

There seems to be two factions occasionally promoting
changes in the use of the cent, amateur efficiency experts,
and those who don't like to bother with exact change because
the cent has so little value compared with wages.

To stop striking cents would not save a substantial
amount of money, the accounting geniuses assign a large
portion of the facility and administrative costs to each
denomination, and if that denomination ceases production,
essentially none of those core costs are reduced.

Since/if Canada has a active source for cent blanks,
then it should be easy to change to steel rather than zinc,
although there may not be much savings there if dies don't
last as long due to the harder metal and if the machines
have to run slower.

If cost of cent production is the pivotal item in
balancing the budget, just start a rumor that cents will
not be legal tender at some unannounced, near future
date, and the banks will be swamped with cents from
people who just don't bother to spend or turn them in
on a regular basis.


The faction that just don't like to bother with
a coin of such little value could easily just let them slip
through their fingers onto the counter, there are people
who really could use them.

Joe Fischer

.

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