After 230 years, the US Mint has ended production of new pennies. One of the very few things that incompetent stopped clock in the White House has gotten accidentally right.
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I keep hoping the broken clock lands on "Ending the tyranny of Daylight Savings Time", but it hasn't happened yet.
IMO it would make more sense to extend the tyranny so that it's DST all year. More daylight in the evening during the summer months is much more useful than more daylight in the morning.
Whichever one makes it so it's not pitch black at 4:00 PM in the winter would be my choice.
Please make sure the government gives us back the hour it steals from us every year before it ends the silliness of DST.
Look for your coupon for "ONE FREE HOUR OF DAYLIGHT" in the mail - much like the $2000 "tariff rebate" checks Trump is hoping to mail out.
For a few years I lived in Japan, which has no daylight savings. Never thought about it once!
Maybe this finally will put an end to the silly $X.97 pricing that retailers use to try to fool shoppers into thinking that $99.97 is all that much less than $100.
However, depending on the sales tax percentage charged, in-person cash sales will remain complex without pennies to produce exact change.
I had to look it up. The penny was created in 1792, and with inflation that singular cent would be worth about 37 cents today.
It makes me think we should strike the nickel and dime as well. Are there any good arguments for that — or does it make economic sense to keep those coins for greater pricing parity or something else entirely?
Now would be a good time to watch the delightful "Ass Pennies" sketch from the Upright Citizens Brigade TV show:
https://youtu.be/f9aM_dT5VMI?si=m1wHEjROz27-aYaq
He's not even doing it right! Trump does not have the power to just end a denomination. That's specifically Congress's power, and they have not passed legislation to do that.
It's infuriating that people are just ignoring that this is unconstitutional.
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