On Mon, 26 Mar 2001 08:44:44
Dennis Brownridge wrote:
>Louis, the irrational penny-prices in the U.S. stem largely from the
>infuriating, deceptive practice of retailers who end prices in .99 to make
>them seem smaller...
And I couldn't agree more with Dennis on this one! :-)
I see no difference if we rounded the total to the nearest 5
>cents. That would mean that purchases totaling less than 70 or 80 cents
>would pay no tax, but there are darn few purchases that small any more.
>Better yet, they should include the tax in the price (as they do in many
>countries, and as we do for gasoline), so you know upfront what you're
>really paying.
>
Ditto here. An excellent idea. That's how we do it in Brazil, BTW.
>I can't agree with Marcus' suggestion that we need more coins. I think we
>need fewer coins, not more.
Now, I wasn't exactly defending more coins per se, but rather suggesting that if one
has coins we'd do better if we adopted a coin system that would be more efficient in
the end. True, in this case it would have meant more coins indeed, but still I'd
rather see a 20-cent coin, than a 25-cent piece! That was actually my main contention
on the whole issue. Your idea below does have merit. BTW, that's what is happening
in Australia now, they've apparently done away with the 1-cent coin and are now using
5-cent pieces with rounding taking care of that part. However, I'm not entirely
convinced it's time for us to do that yet, that's all.
Marcus
I'd get rid of dimes (10 cents) too, and just
>have nickels (5 cents) and quarters (25 cents...
Who needs Cupid? Matchmaker.com is the place to meet somebody.
FREE Two-week Trial Membership at http://www.matchmaker.com/home?rs=200015
