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Kill the Dollar Bill!

2011-07-08 · letter vlog · John · 3:13 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Economics (also: Pop culture) · mode: Advocacy & fundraising · tags: community lore, self promotion, civic or action cta

Replying to Hank's bias video, John uses the denomination effect to argue that the US should stop printing one-dollar bills and switch to $1 and $2 coins, which the GAO says would save $5.5 billion over 30 years and would also raise consumer spending.

What is said

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

00:00:00 — Reply to Hank: disliking the Mountain Goats is not anchoring bias but a correct aesthetic judgment; Sing-a-ma-jig vs Mozart

  • ★★ Answering Hank, John says dismissing people who don't like the Mountain Goats is not anchoring bias but a correct aesthetic judgment: the Mountain Goats are a great band. (playful) — 00:00:00
  • ★ Another 'fact', John says: his Sing-a-ma-jig compositions are excellent, but inferior to Mozart. (joke) — 00:00:09

00:00:21 — The denomination effect: people spend small denominations and coins more readily

  • ★★★ The denomination effect: people are biased toward spending money in small denominations (a hundred $1 bills rather than one $100 bill) and, worldwide, toward spending coins over paper money. — 00:00:21
  • ★★ Not American pennies, though: no one spends them because they're 'worthless and evil'; John says he has an anchoring bias against people who don't hate pennies. (playful) — 00:00:39

00:00:43 — Digression: why John hates pennies; the Netherlands has none; savings and political games

  • ★★ John hates pennies because they cost more than a penny to make and don't work as money: try paying 383 pennies for a gallon of gas. — 00:00:47
  • ★★ Many countries have eliminated pennies; the Netherlands has none, and nothing happened: inflation didn't rise and charitable giving didn't fall. — 00:00:59
  • ★★ Getting rid of the penny would save the government millions of dollars a year, what you'd do if you were serious about cutting the budget rather than playing political games. — 00:01:08

00:01:19 — Kill the $1 bill: GAO says $1 and $2 coins would save $5.5 billion over 30 years; printing costs, lifespans; more spending; easy choices not made

  • ★★ About a billion one-dollar coins sit around the United States unused, because people like paper money. — 00:01:25
  • ★★★ The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office reported to Congress that replacing the $1 bill with $1 and $2 coins would save $5.5 billion over 30 years. — 00:01:30 · United States Congress
  • ★★ Two reasons: a $1 bill now costs 9.6 cents to print because of rising cotton prices, and lasts about 40 months in circulation versus about 30 years for a coin. — 00:01:43
  • ★★ No new coins need minting, since a billion $1 coins already exist; just remove the bills. People might be slightly inconvenienced for a while, but Canada and Europe got used to it. — 00:01:56 · Canada, Europe
  • ★★★ Besides saving the federal government $5 billion, the denomination effect implies people would spend more, and consumer spending is the number one driver of US economic growth. — 00:02:10
  • ★★★ In short: there are many hard choices, but the denomination effect shows there are also some easy ones, and we aren't making them. — 00:02:21

00:02:28 — TFiOS still a bestseller; Nerdfighters' will-all-pre-orders-be-signed website; Sharpie colour poll; Gatsby homework; sign-off

  • ★★ John thanks Nerdfighters for continuing to make The Fault in Our Stars a bestseller on Amazon and Barnes & Noble: 'you're made of awesome'. — 00:02:29 · Nerdfighteria, The Fault in Our Stars, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, made of awesome
  • ★★ Nerdfighters Julie and Martha made a website asking whether all pre-orders of The Fault in Our Stars will be signed, John's favourite website ever, which answers a question he was asked hundreds of times this week (week of 4 July 2011). — 00:02:37 · Nerdfighteria, The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★ Viewers are deciding which Sharpie colour John will use to sign the books: the poll in Your Pants is linked in the doobly-doo, so vote. — 00:02:49 · Sharpie, doobly-doo, in your pants
  • ★★ John reminds viewers to read the first six chapters of The Great Gatsby by Wednesday (13 July 2011): homework from YouTube. — 00:03:05

Humor (significant)

  • Listing facts in the world, John plays one of his Sing-a-ma-jig compositions. — 00:00:09

    “are excellent, but inferior to Mozart.”

  • Insisting that the Mountain Goats being great is a fact, John's voice breaks mid-rant. — 00:00:16

    “And yes my voice cracked; I'm angry!”

  • Turning Hank's anchoring bias on its head, John declares his position on pennies. — 00:00:43

    “I have an anchoring bias against people who don't hate pennies.”

  • Insisting the Sharpie colour vote is serious business, John gives the link. — 00:02:55

    “There is a link in the doobly-doo to a poll in your pants”

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Abolish the US one-dollar bill · denomination effect

Also: People: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Projects: Your Pants (“a poll in your pants”)

Works: The Fault in Our Stars · The Great Gatsby

Organizations: Amazon · Barnes & Noble · Federal government of the United States · Government Accountability Office · United States Congress

Groups: The Mountain Goats

Terms: doobly-doo · in your pants (“a poll in your pants”)

Concepts: anchoring effect · consumer spending · economic growth

Places: Canada · Europe · Netherlands

Products: Sharpie · Singamajigs

Policies: Abolish the US penny

Replies to

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