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I HATE PENNIES!!!! (Also Nickels.)

2010-09-06 · John · watch on YouTube · Economics · advocacy activism

Inspired by Hank's regulation video, John rants that pennies (and nickels) cost more to make than they are worth, waste time and money, and fail to facilitate commerce, and proposes keeping only dimes, fifty-cent pieces and dollar coins.

What is said

00:00:00 — Labor Day greeting; Hank's Friday video on privatized risk and regulation inspires John to tackle a controversial issue: I hate pennies

  • ★★ In the description John updates his figures as out of date: in 2009 it cost 1.6 cents to make a penny and 6.1 cents to make a nickel. — 00:00:00
  • ★ John opens by saying he got attacked by a baby. (playful) — 00:00:02
  • ★★ John says he loves Hank's Friday video on privatized risk and public regulation, whose passion made him want to talk about controversial issues near to his heart. (playful) — 00:00:03
  • ★★★ John declares that he hates pennies. (playful) — 00:00:17

00:00:21 — Penny economics: inflation since 1972, 1.7-cent mint cost and $70M subsidy, opportunity cost and $1B productivity loss, no argument for the penny, Jarden Zinc

  • ★★ John says that because of inflation a 1972 penny was worth what a nickel is today, yet the 1972 economy worked fine without a coin worth a fifth of today's penny. — 00:00:31
  • ★★★ John says it costs the US Mint 1.7 cents to make a penny, so every year $70 million of federal tax money subsidizes the penny. — 00:00:45
    • number check: 1.7 cents — doubtful
  • ★★ John says making pennies from steel instead of zinc would fix the cost but not the underlying problem: pennies are worthless, indeed worth less than nothing. (playful) — 00:00:56
  • ★★★ Invoking opportunity cost and several studies, John says time Americans spend fiddling with pennies costs up to a billion dollars a year in lost productivity. — 00:01:11
  • ★★★ John says there is no legitimate argument for the penny: many studies show dropping it wouldn't raise prices or cut charitable contributions. — 00:01:34 > «There is no legitimate argument in favor of the penny.»
  • ★★ John says the only institution that benefits from the penny is Jarden Zinc Products, a company in Greeneville, Tennessee. — 00:01:42

00:01:54 — The ultimate reason: pennies don't facilitate exchange; giant squid of anger; nickels cost over nine cents

  • ★★★ John's ultimate reason: money exists to facilitate exchange, and pennies don't, since parking meters and vending machines don't accept them. — 00:01:57
  • ★★ John says a nickel, worth five cents, takes more than nine cents to produce, as if a bank paid nine cents for every nickel. — 00:02:18
    • number check: more than nine cents — doubtful

00:02:37 — Solution: dime, fifty-cent piece and dollar coin; why it won't happen: sentimentality, Lincoln, a non-partisan issue nobody fights for

  • ★★★ John proposes the real solution: only three coins, a dime, a fifty-cent piece and a dollar. — 00:02:37
  • ★★ John says the three-coin system would save billions of dollars a year, enough to pay for many of the job-creation programs politicians fight about. — 00:02:42
  • ★★ John says reform won't happen first because we're a species of sentimentalists who grew up with pennies and like Abraham Lincoln. — 00:02:50
  • ★★ Second, John says coinage reform isn't partisan: about half its major advocates in the last ten years were Republicans and half Democrats, so it fires up no base. — 00:03:10 · Republican Party

00:03:35 — Reminder: Vondell Swain's vlogbrothers shirt pre-order ends in a week; payment joke; sign-off

  • ★★ John reminds Nerdfighteria that a vlogbrothers shirt designed by Nerdfighter Vondell Swain is on pre-order at DFTBA.com for one more week: get it now. — 00:03:37 · DFTBA Records, Nerdfighteria

Humor (significant)

  • Having shouted that pennies are worthless, John contradicts himself: things that are worthless are worth nothing. — 00:01:04 > «and pennies are worth much less than nothing.»
  • Ranting that parking meters and vending machines won't take pennies, John's anger boils over. — 00:02:16 > «I AM TURNING INTO A GIANT SQUID OF ANGER!!!»
  • John imagines what Abraham Lincoln would say if he were alive today. — 00:02:59 > «Why is my face on a coin that is worth one twenty-sixth of what a penny was worth when I was president?»
  • Listing payment methods for the shirt pre-order, John says they take really anything. — 00:03:48 > «...Except for pennies. ...And nickels.»

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