Poll: Abolish the penny?

[Ancalagon the Black]

Inspired by the $2 bill thread: keep the good ol' copper or send it the way of the Betamax?

[portisizzle]

No.

10 pennies is one dime

10 dimes is one dollar

10 dollars is 10 dollar bill

10 ten dollar bills is 100 dollar bill

You see, you mess everything up. Would you ever consider getting rid of the dollar bill?

[PleaseBlitz]

All change should be abolished except for the quarter and all bills except the one, twenty, and 100. Society should be forcibly pushed towards all electronic transactions and paper money and coin should be used only in emergencies (and gambling).

Paper money and coin are bad for the economy, bad for your health, and bad for society in general, and we now have the technology to move past it.

[zoony]

Ax the penny.

But you're Australian. You're not allowed to make these decisions and point out our ineffeciency. Only we are.

[Spaceman Spiff]

http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse....i?u=penny_drop

I was wandering around aimlessly at work the other day when I saw a group of co-workers watching a video of some war footage in Afghanistan. It was a good opportunity to be unproductive, so naturally I stood there and watched. The video was in black and white, and was shot from the point of view of the gunship as it fired explosive rounds at people. There was a little cross hair on the screen, and you could hear chatter of the pilot as he dropped the bombs.

Every time the pilot clicked the trigger button, it resulted in an explosion a few seconds later. They were literally firing thousands of rounds per minute, easily using hundreds of thousands of dollars in ammunition on people; not tanks, not turrets, not even jeeps, but people. So this gave me an idea: rather than using $100,000 worth of ammo, why don't we take $100,000, convert it to pennies, then drop the pennies on people instead? You could get 10 million pennies for $100,000, which should be able to fill at least 40 bags full of pennies. Thus we could drop bags of pennies more frequently than bombs, which could mean big savings for our military. Hell, you don't even have to drop them in bags to kill people. You could tape the pennies together 10 at a time and drop them from a height of 5,000 feet and kill damn near everything on the ground (and in a war on terrorism™, this is exactly what you'd want to do).

I call it: operation penny-drop. It's the perfect way to win a war. Even the hippies won't be bitching because after the war is over and we've killed all the terrorists, the people who are still alive can rebuild their country by picking the pennies from the skulls of the dead people. Not only will we have won the war, but we don't even have to worry about paying war reparations. It's the perfect plan because everybody wins. We kill all the evil terrorists, and give them some of our own currency to rebuild their country with. Eventually when we open the first Starbucks in their country, we won't even have to worry about currency exchange because they can use the left-over money to buy beverages, and let's face it, who could resist an ice cold frappuccino after a long war?

The military probably won't consider this idea because it's too good. Realistically, the military will probably continue to drop traditional bombs. However, it's a well-known fact that a percentage of bombs we drop every year won't detonate. When we're talking about bombs that cost over $100,000, that could add up quickly, so what can we do in case the bombs don't go off? Simple: strap bombs to the back of german shepherds:



The idea is that if the bomb doesn't go off, and the german shepherd's back doesn't break, then the enemy would be in for a nasty surprise when they'd try to retrieve our weapons. Sure a few dogs would die as collateral damage, but it would totally be worth it to see the expression on the terrorist's face when they get attacked by our german shepherds. The CIA could capture this with spy satellites and put together a "Terrorist Bloopers" video, which could mean more money for our military. I can't believe nobody thought of this idea until now.

[SonnyRules]

Get rid of all change. Round off everything to the nearest dollar.

[Ancalagon the Black]

No.

10 pennies is one dime

10 dimes is one dollar

10 dollars is 10 dollar bill

10 ten dollar bills is 100 dollar bill

You see, you mess everything up. Would you ever consider getting rid of the dollar bill?

No, I don't see. Why would this mess everything up? And what does it have to do with getting rid of the dollar bill?

But you're Australian. You're not allowed to make these decisions and point out our ineffeciency. Only we are.

American trapped Down Under. There's a difference.

[PleaseBlitz]

Get rid of all change. Round off everything to the nearest dollar.

The only problem with that is for things that are relatively inexpensive to where rounding them 50 cents up or down would make them unprofitable or unviable in our economy and that are extremely price elastic. No is going to pay $1 for a gumball for instance. And if gas had to be rounded to $1 per gallon, we would all be screwed. Thats why I included the quarter. Gas could be rounded to the quarter on a multi-gallon basis, and if rounding up to the quarter is slightly more than what it would be with an exact-change electronic transaction, then just chalk it up to a convience fee/punishment for using cash and coin.

Eventually though, and I dont think this is too far of, we will carry ID/Drivers licenses/check cards. Just scan and go.

[Predicto]

Yes, get rid of the penny, and replace the dollar with a small dollar coin. It's time.

[SkinsNut73]

Ax the penny.

But you're Australian. You're not allowed to make these decisions and point out our ineffeciency. Only we are.

Agreed. Ax the penny.

[gchwood]

All change should be abolished except for the quarter and all bills except the one, twenty, and 100. Society should be forcibly pushed towards all electronic transactions and paper money and coin should be used only in emergencies (and gambling).

Paper money and coin are bad for the economy, bad for your health, and bad for society in general, and we now have the technology to move past it.

The government is pushing everyone towards fully electronic. Hence the Check 21 act, 2 octobers ago. Get rid of checks by speeding up the time between banks

[Kilmer17]

Good luck.

Remember how many votes Illinois has?

[DCNightHawk]

Yes, get rid of the penny, and replace the dollar with a small dollar coin. It's time.

NO!!!! I hate dollar coins. They are horrible. While traveling in Europe, I had bad experiences with 1 euro coins. I like the paper bills because they fit easily into my wallet. The coins were heavy, they were awkward to carry and I kept losing them. I like bills because they are so easy to handle. Oh and keep the penny too, its part of our history.

[SkinsOrlando]

I say keep the currency the way it is.

[SkinsBry]

Yes, get rid of the penny. I've wanted to get rid of the penny for years now.