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

2010-09-06 · explainer · John · 3:57 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Economics · mode: Advocacy & fundraising · tags: self promotion, community lore, self correction

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

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

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

  • ★ 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 · United States
    • a number in question (doubtful): "1.7 cents" — check against the recording (cost to produce a us penny)
  • ★★ 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
    • check: more than nine cents — doubtful (cost to produce a us nickel)

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

In the description and comments

  • ★★ 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. — video description
  • ★★ In the same update John says the US Mint lost $22 million on penny and nickel production in 2009, not the $70 million it lost in 2008, because the recession had made zinc and nickel cheaper. — video description · United States
  • ★ John thanks the YouTuber sivartis for the correction to his penny and nickel figures. — video description
  • ★★ John says his inflation calculations came from the CPI inflation calculator, and points to a Washington Post article and a Consumer Affairs article for the opportunity-cost and lost-productivity figures. — video description

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.”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

People: Abraham Lincoln

Projects: DFTBA Records

Works: Vlogbrothers shirt

Organizations: Democratic Party · Jarden Zinc Products · Republican Party · United States Mint

Concepts: inflation · opportunity cost

Places: Greeneville, Tennessee · United States

Events: Labor Day

Policies: Abolish the US penny

Only in the description or credits: sivartis · Vondell Swain

Replies to

Later videos replying to this one

Part of an exchange of 3 videos, 2010-09-03 – 2010-09-11.