Because it does seem like, once a year, some congressional committee or treasury committee produces yet another report about how dollar coins are cheaper to make and last longer and will therefore save us money, and that the only way to put them into circulation and have them accepted is to start simply taking dollar bills out of circulation.
And every year, some congresscritters nod, intrigued, and some Treasure officers nod, sagely. And then someone says, "People don't like it" (as if there's an inalienable right to paper dollars) and the idea goes the way of the do-do, until the following year.
If you're going to do it, do it. I know the government doesn't like to make fundamental changes in its power that people are going to get temporarily cranky about, but, jeez, this is not only money-saving policy but proven by pretty much every other country out there.
And once we're done with that, we can move on to adopting the metric system, too. Which I think is probably just about as (un)likely.
(h/t +Les Jenkins)
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Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — American consumers have shown about as much appetite for the $1 coin as kids do their spinach. They may not know what’s best for them either. Congressional auditors say doing away wi…
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All they need to do is get the NRA to back the change: carrying twenty bucks around in a little cloth bag is the functional equivalent of a blackjack…
Strange. In the UK we now have £1 and £2 coins instead of grubby old pound notes. They don't seem to buy as much as a pound note used to, but that's another story. Oh, btw, no hyphen in dodo. 🙂
I suppose that means it’s time for somebody to propose eliminating pennies again. Actually, inflation may eliminate the need for dollars soon. How long before everything is in multiples of $5?
:/
Inflation has actually largely been under control since the 70s. Not that it doesn’t exist, but it’s not the driving force (remember “double digit inflation”?) that it once was. Of course, it could pop up again for a variety of reasons having to do with resource scarcity, crop failure, and other such externalities.
That said, we seem to have given up on the idea of getting rid of pennies in our money.
Hecklers, always ruining acts with facts. Hmph.
You made me look it up. What the heck happened in 2008?
Looks pretty bad 95 years ago, too.
The graph labeling is misleading, as it shows the December 31st rates for each labeled year. 2008 was actually an incredibly low inflation year. 2007 was much higher (4+ %) based on energy and food cost. See here.