The penny pandemic is still RAGING across America!! And now the liberal media is so OBSESSED with fads like a "global health crisis" that they re suddenly IGNORING their previous pet projects? In an election year?? Where's they're handing out billions and even TRILLIONS of pennies to people for "rent" and "food"? COINCIDENCE?!? Re-elect Trump and he will make the penny FUNGIBLE again! ...I'm sorry. I don't know why I was compelled to write this. I think my brain and heart are broken.
@@trialconesiaur1638 5tfffftfffzffffrrdrrrfffrrrrrdrrrrxdx,but the fact ,right ✅ 👌 👏 6ft the dream was free drddrthatr,rdrrrrr,dr,f when 🤔 RR had the that you for a, it is drrddddrdddddrrdrdrd
It was about how systemic racism leads to things like small children being expelled preschool for wearing natural hair, or that black hair care products are kept under lock & key while more expensive products are free for anyone to take Not just "hairstyles"
@@Hehe-nt4oe yes but if you watched it you’d know it was about how Black folks’ cultural hairstyles are disgustingly policed and it starts with young ass children, at the expense of their education. Ie the kid with braids who was literally told to shave his head or not come back to school. Idk if that specific example was included in the video but it’s a big example that gained a LOT of media attention. The hair episode is not a good example of dedicating episodes on subjects when the world isn’t on fire. This one was rooted in racism. So😒
@@DopeyDetector i have, in fact, grown up in the five years since i left that comment. i’m almost twenty now. that’s how time works edit: and i still think mice are cute
In Canada, we got rid of the penny in 2012. Now prices are just rounded to the next whole number. It saves time. It saves weight in your wallet. It means charities get more money via those spinning wheels young children love and it means the government saves money by not printing useless coins. It's a win-win for everyone. The fact that the United States STILL hasn't gotten rid of the penny is ludicrous.
@tgmforum The U.S. is often averse to getting rid of things that no longer work. Like the Electoral College, or whatever that law is that prevents Puerto Rico from being a State. "It has always been done that way so we aren't changing"
Bao Doan No law prevents Puerto Rico from being a state. Congress could admit Puerto Rico as a state anytime they wanted. However, it’s a politically divisive issue both in Congress, and also in Puerto Rico. There isn’t a clear consensus Puerto Ricans necessarily want to become a state at all.
@@thegrayyernaut Talking about Puerto Rico and the electoral college aren’t great examples because they are much more complicated and politically decisive. Nobody gives a f- about the penny.
In Canada, we got rid of the penny is 2012. And the effect is glorious. Whenever something is 12 cents, you give a dime. If something is 18 cents, you give two dimes. Most stores don't even care if you give them a dime and a nickel. It saves a lot of time and saves giving a lot of fucks.
@tgmforum tgmforum taxes as they are are set a percentages. If someone sells something for a dollar where I live there is 8 cents of tax. in order for that to be a number that is easily divisible by five either the tax code has to be rewritten or companies have to start purposely setting prices so that the math works out. neither of these options is as easy as just rounding.
@tgmforum Prices still exists in single cent increments here. Anything paid by debit or credit card is still charged the normal price. It's only when using cash that the price is rounded to the nearest nickel.
I've read somewhere that when the US got rid of the half-penny, it had buying power similar to what the dime does for us today, so really if we were to follow our previous footsteps we'd at least get rid of the nickel too.
+Vlad Baran But still relevant. +Gnoggin is saying they had the "courage" to get rid of something worth 10 cents by today's standards, and the world didn't end. I would honestly be happy if we got rid of pennies, nickels, AND dimes.
I love how when Canada wants to do something (like dump the penny) they just do it and no one makes a fuss. We don't have stupid lobbies for silly things like keeping a coin around, unlike America who seems to have a lobby for everything.
+lacountess we do have a lobby for everything....want to change the design of mens underwear? good luck. The underwear corporations will lobby to make a bill that imposes a design limitation on men's underwear...i dont know if thats true....but i wouldnt be surprised
+lacountess lol, there definitely were people against removing the penny in Canada. It wasn't a super smooth change. There was debates about what to do with prices inbetween 1 and 9 (save 5). I think most people were annoyed that the penny did nothing. Many people collect pennies. It's weird but they do it. I would say penny removal went pretty quickly though.
I did an experiment awhile back in the cafeteria where I worked. I put a penny on top of a nickel on top of a napkin dispenser. They stayed there for a few hours. I noticed later the nickel was gone but the penny was still there. Note this: The penny was on top of the nickel. It was MORE work to just take the nickel than to just grab both of them. This tells me the penny has a NEGATIVE value. They are not worth the cost of counting them, or picking them up if they fall. Good riddance!
Bullshit. It tells ME that the person who took the nickel is too stupid to realize that MONEY IS STILL MONEY NO MATTER HOW SMALL THE DENOMINATION. And then y'all wonder why it's so hard to save up. * EYEROLL *
@@Serai3 It's still money 💵 . No one is arguing that point. Some of us value TIME more than money. If I drop or find a penny, will I pick it up? No way. That's taking a few seconds out of my life (time) with essentially no benefit of return (purchasing power). The only "gain" you achieve is the physical exercise of retrieving that penny. (if you want to do a hundred knee-bends to "earn" $1, be my guest! 😅) Even if I get pennies in my change from a cashier, I usually leave them on the counter or I toss them in the trash on the way out. I probably lose $10-20 a year, but it's worth it. I've noticed a lot of stores will just round the change up and keep pennies out of the equation.
@@Serai3 This isn't privilege. They just pointed out the fact that a penny has no purchase power. In many places, quite literally - many stores don't accept payment in them. That effectively means that if you live in an area where businesses around you don't accept pennies, they are literally worthless pieces of metal. For it to have any purchase power at all, you'd have to collect a very large amount of them and then find a specific store or a way to use them. That's precisely why most pennies are out of circulation already.
+blackhawkswincup2010 and yet with have free health care, somewhat affordable uni tuition, pensions for the old, & unemployed, and all those scary things that republicans hate...and Canada can still manage to be a top country to live in. Beat that. Eh? Buddy
But I discovered you can sand off the copper on one side, stack 'em up with vinegar-soaked paper between them, and power an LED! Instant night-light! And it costs only pennies! (Clothes-pin extra.)
Pennies: vending machines don't take them, toll booths don't take them, and pretty soon charities will be saying 'fuck this; you keep your worthless zinc'.
+Stugon Monday You are going to have to wait at least a hundred years for it to be worth anything more than a dollar unless its one of those collector item with a rare year. Even those are still pretty cheap. We just have way too many of these.
Don't forget that when the half-cent was eliminated, the value of the penny was what a QUARTER is now. In other words, eliminating the half-cent back in the day would be functionally equivalent to eliminating all coins less than 25 cents. By comparison eliminating our modern penny would make almost no difference.
Go ahead and loose the nickle while we are at it. Drop a decimal point and make a dime the lowest unit. (yes the quarter would have to be replaced with something that doesn't end in .05). At this point there is no real reason not to make everything round to the nearest 10 cents.
Yeah. We dropped the penny in Canada a few years back. Life went on. The transition was pretty painless, really. I keep a 1965 penny on my desk though because it's my mother's year of birth and her name's Penny. But yeah, get rid of 'em, guys. Trust me, it'll be okay.
Did you guys round up or down? That is my fear, our govt will round up and call it a new tax. Plus I have been broke to where I would scrounge for change just so I could buy bread or rice. Prices are already high enough and our economy is greedy enough to figure out how to use the drop in pennies to up prices more. I guess I am just jaded from being in really tough times. I make good money now but 15yrs ago I didn't. A coworker bragged how she never picked up pennies and would vacuum them up when cleaning her car. She scoffed at saving them cause after a year it would only be a few dollars. It isn't like you could go on vacation with what you saved. From someone struggling to survive that was hard to hear. I still save e very penny because I don't want to struggle like that ever again.
+Kyla Luv We round to the nearest 5. So if it's $1.77, it rounds to &1.75, if it's $1.78, it rounds to &1.80. That's only if you're paying with cash though. If you pay with debit or credit it's just the cost of the item, no rounding.
+Kyla Luv We do both actually. Depends on the company though. The law is that they have to round to the nearest nickel. BUT some companies will always round down.
Yeah, we here in the United States of America pretty much just sit around sucking deep fried garbage out of a putrified corpses punctured taint. Fortunately the country is going to collapse within 30 months from now, so you won't have to worry about us for long. I look forward to dying in the riots.
I'm waiting for the discussion about getting rid of the following (for about the same reasons this video pointed out: price and commodity): 1) The dollar bill to a coin 1B) Heck, why not a 2 dollar coin like we have! 2) Paper bills to polymer bills (cheaper and WAY harder to counterfeit).
It's baffling to me that the U.S. still has pennies and non-polymer bills. You guys are really good at doing things that aren't in your best interest! I was still working as a cashier at a casino when they got rid of pennies here in Canada. Man, was I stoked about it. No more having to count people's giant Ziploc bags full of pennies they'd bring in (because my bosses were too cheap to buy a coin counter).
It is worthless for the government to manufacture them what is left for someone to fake them... On top of that they were all brand-new and brought from banks in boxes therefore - no dirt, no erode, no difference at all.
I agree. Just weigh 10 pennies, weigh the coins and see if it is roughly the correct weight. Any miscalculation is easily made up by the time saved not having to count them.
I love pennies. Unless it’s dangerous to pick them up, like in a cross walk or the middle of the street, I always do. Once, I rolled $375 in pennies to pay bills. Those coins that no one else wants have helped me stay out of the red on a number of occasions. I also really enjoy collecting the older ones. It always surprises me to find a wheat penny and it makes my whole day that much more joyous. People are crazy for throwing away money. It’s the same for me when they throw bottles or cans out. That’s a whole nickel you’re throwing out there, and sometimes a dime. Like, honestly, I’m not too proud to take two seconds to pick it up. It’s like $38 in gas I’m getting from turning those containers in every two weeks. It makes a difference.
You're collecting 3800 pennies every 2 weeks? That's 270 pennies a day. I don't know what you do but most people do not have time to scour the streets for hundreds of pennies every day. I'm impressed though.
I agree, I've been saving spare change, mostly pennies, for years now. It might be silly, but I don't see the point in throwing away money. Sure, it'll be work to roll then all when it's time to put it in my account, but I kinda get satisfaction from saving the coins.
@tgmforum it took several hours, but yes 37,500 pennies. It was quite a lot. I’ve gotten pretty quick at it. You can make stacks of the same height and then double check them to make sure they’re 10c each. Or get a coin sorter. I have one that’s clear plastic where you put a handful of coins in the top and it sorts them. It has marks on the side that give you an approximate amount at that level, but not all coins are the same thickness. They ware down over time. So you have to double check the count but it makes the process faster. Since quarantine people have been staying in the house and using card instead of coins. It’s also a bit dangerous to collect coins and discarded recycling right now with the pandemic. But the coin shortage means people who collect coins are the only ones who have them right now. The scarcity increases their value.
AlphaDream im well aware of that! but what are you gonna change? getting rid of physical money is gonna benefit the 1% even more then it does now, cause you've got no control over your money anymore once its gone!
Hmmm does this mean I can convert $100 into pennies and then melt the pennies down and sell the raw material for $170 since it costs $1.70 to make pennies now?
no bc pennies dont cost $1.70 they cost .017. i would put a cent sign on here, but the penny is so fucking worthless that it doesn't deserve to have a sign nor to be spelt correctly.
I was gonna leave you alone but it felt like a sin to not point out your stupidity. The cent (1¢) costs 1.7¢ to make, therefore the cost to make a cent is 1.7 times its value. $100 worth of cents multiplied by 1.7 is $170, which is a net increase of $70. No, the cent doesnt cost $1.70 to make (mistake in original comment) because thats a 17000% price increase, not a 170% increase, but it would still yield a profit.
I pick up pennies, and I spend them. I almost never have more than 4 pennies at a time. If I buy something that costs $7.03, I'll hand the clerk a ten-dollar bill and three pennies. Nobody ever needs more than four pennies, so I don't understand why anyone ever has to roll them. Spend them!
If you want to have some fun sometime, buy something for, say, $7.38, and hand the clerk a ten-dollar bill, two quarters, and three pennies, and watch their brain fry.
+David Adams No. I just smile and wait while they figure it out. They are a bit flustered at first when they try to give me the coins back and take it all out of the ten, and I tell them no, to use the coins, but then when they do figure it out and see what I get back, they nod and smile. It's not that complicated, and I think some of the teenaged clerks end up proud of themselves.
+Silkendrum Cool. I guess people get stymied from being out of practice. I remember, back when registers were just becoming automated, customers gleeful at the prospect of tripping up the cashier.
+Silkendrum im going to say that you should be very mindful of who you do that to, I just spent 6 minuutes and I am still stuck,( and before people go calling me names for this, Yes I am Autistic and yes i have multiple learning difficulities includining math,) the thing is a lot of people have legitimate disabilities related to thing like math who do work in retail and who may be put up as a cashier because low staff or something, I think this sort of thing is ok in some situatuions as log as your mindful ie this isnt an ok idea if there is a line or some such.
+LowFlyin' For real. It's so useless and super-outdated and serves nothing more than to make people an hour late or early the very next day. It's the year 2015. No one can regulate their daily activities, errands, and work schedule based on how little or how much light there is outside. Nowadays, I personally just know that the daylight lasts shorter during the Fall and Winter and longer during Spring and Summer. I wouldn't have a problem with them dropping that outdated tradition at all.
Pennies went out of circulation here in Canada back in, what, 2012? You can still find thousands of the worthless copper-zinc alloy disks lying in the gutters. I have a jar with probably $15 worth of pennies just sitting on a shelf from back when I just wanted the f*ckers out my damn wallet because all they were good for was taking up space.
I remember living in England during the 1980's and having half-pennies being the same way. People looked at you like you had 3 heads when you tried to use one
When I was leaving USA I spent an hour wondering around the airport and looking for a charity box I could dump my two pounds of change into. And I did, eventually. The workers watching me stuff their box with coins were quite perplexed.
Okay, my view was that we HAVE to have the lowest possible denomination in our currency system, but then I saw the bit about the half-penny. So thank you for the education and for changing my mind.
You think you just got educated? I just found out that Ireland is in the process of dropping the penny... and I'm Irish. In my defense I've been living in the UK for a couple of years now, but it still seems like something I shouldn't have heard about in a Last Week Tonight clip XD
But what is the lowest possible denomination in you currency system? Currently, it is a hundredth of a dollar, that is, a fraction, and theoretically a dollar could be divided in any number of fractions, or no fraction at all. Anyway, in my country, Chile, we don't have a fractional currency, but we still got rid of the $1 and $5 coins and nothing happened.
We do not miss the copper being in circulation. Everyone kept some pennies, because they were an important currency in our history. It didn't make sense, to keep making cents.
Glancing through the comments, it seems they come in three groups 1. New Zealanders bragging about their country 2. Canadians bragging about their country 3. People who thought John Oliver was talking about penises I'm not sure what this says about John Oliver fans.
+OtherGonzo 4. People talking about these two videos: CGP Grey: th-cam.com/video/y5UT04p5f7U/w-d-xo.html Vlogbrothers: th-cam.com/video/77C47XYm_3c/w-d-xo.html
+OtherGonzo In my mind I read your comment to the tune of "jingle bells" :D "Glancing through the comments it seems they come in three groups lalala [...]"
Yep, pennies are hilariously useless. I put any I get into a special cup so they aren't mixed with the more valuable coins (in case I need to use change for something it's easier to find). Then I wait till I'm going to a coin star and use them then. THEN, I throw whatever I get back in pennies on the ground in the parking lot.
Regular people: *walks away from pennies* Me: *picks up every single penny that I can see* because one day, those pennies that I collected could be $1,000 or more. Now that's some rich people money.
+Blue Panda Uchiha or it could actually be not worth anything as there are still too many of them. But hey! maybe your great great great great great great grand childeren might get that 1000 bucks.
Blue Panda Uchiha sure except it does not apply. The worth of something also depends on the scarcity of things. This is the reason why even money over 100 years old in a lot of cases is not worth as much as you would think. Same with other objects. As long as there is a lot of those then its not worth a whole lot. A good example for this is bible. My mother for example almost 10 years ago. While work at the church as a caretaker found old bibles in the attic, the oldest dating back all the way to the 1600's. You would think wow that is old. So the church had an expert come and take a look. Sadly because there are still many copies out there of that bible, it is not worth a whole lot. Despite being close to 400 years old.
***** but STILL alot of pennies can make alot of money. Any penny that you see on the ground pick it up because later in life that penny can be worth something in the future. "A bowl is most useful when it is empty"-Laozi
Blue Panda Uchiha It could be, never said you should not pick a penny up. But becoming maybe rich by it or even a windfall of 1k is probably not going to happen anytime soon.
It would take 60+ years for the penny supply to be reduced through random tossing into garbage cans, the ocean, and damage for pennies to finally be worth like, 10 cents in an antique store.
+Jonathan Hartwig the value of the penny will always be 1 cent, doesn't matter how rare they are. the 2 dollar bills are pretty rare already, but they're still only worth 2 dollars.
You probably spend more money in the amount of food and water used to power your body in the act of picking up a penny than you gain from the penny itself. It's like negative calories, but more useless.
No. I roll probably $25-$30 in pennies every year. Granted, I don't know if I'd get down on my hands and knees and pick up $1.50 worth but it's still currency. I've never understood the argument, "well it costs more to make them then they're worth". Ok, fair enough. But a 20 dollar bill doesn't cost $20 to make either. With the exception of the penny I'm pretty sure every other denomination costs less to produce than it's actual monetary worth.
Yeah but you're not thinking about the name of the coin. You're just thinking "Oh shit, 1 dollar! And it didn't blow away in the wind like an American one would!"
I mentioned this in this thread. Because of sales taxes and American prices not including the tax in the shelf price, the cost always comes down to the penny, like you said $13.23 or whatever. Coupled with almost every retail store and every restaurant charging .99 in their price, which absolutely annoys me because retailers think their customer is stupid and will read $4.99 as much cheaper than $5.00. Other nations have easily given up their worthless coinage because the price on the shelf is the price you pay., including sales taxes or VAT or whatever. So the only way to practically eliminate the penny is again have the price on the shelf as the price you pay and the retailers/restaurants stopping the 99 bullshit (they will just do .95 instead of .99 however).
The penny used to be made of 100% solid copper, and made a decent washer/rove used on the inside of a riveted boat plant attachment . Now they are made of sink.
When's the last time you found anything worth a single dime? I live near a dollar store and a random surplus store. The cheapest things there are 75c for 50 toothpicks & 50c for a cheap refrigerator magnet. The only I can think of at all worth less than 25c is loose candy, at which point you're better off just selling it 3/25c, than 1/10c.
I don't think Donald Trumps mouth would appreciate having to say small loan of a million dollars that much. Small loan of a million dollars, papa bless
I've never not picked up a penny. I always save them away among other change and every few months put them in the little coin rolls and take them to the bank for cash. I normally get a good extra $40-50 bucks from it. Then again, I am a poor af college kid and that is actually quite substantial for me lol. It equals about 5 tops from Forever 21 or 40 of the little Kraft Mac & Cheese bowls, both of which I am down for any day. Also that guy who paid his fine in pennies is a huge frickin asshole. He deserves his own parking spot, but in the far, far back of the commuter lot. You know, that area so far back it's more used for smoking pot and f*cking than actual parking.
+Alyssa Schiffman --- but if instead of collecting up pennies from each transaction, rolling them up and cashing them in, you handed the cashier some of those coins in each transaction, you'd have the exact same money [just in larger denomination coins and bills]
+Alyssa Schiffman Next time take them to the Coin Star machine. Before you start dumping them in, disconnect the network cable from the back and it can't connect to charge you.
In Canada we thankfully stopped minting our one-cent coin in 2013. It took the public maybe about a week to get used to rounding cash totals to the nearest five cents. It was long overdue!
+Sarah Darkhand Oh, _yes!_ One of the thoughts that stuck most with me throughout the video was probably, "Has John seen this video?? Someone should show John this video!" This is the comment that I descended to the comment section of this video looking for!
Erica Bourland I know, right? It's good to remember how far Nerdfighteria has really spread and how we can find each other in even relatively remote places... DFTBA!
The Nickle is a lot worse. About 9 cents to make one. I wouldn't be opposed to getting rid of both. But therein lies the math problems with just the dime and quarter. " Your total is $1.75" Gives a dollar bill, two quarters and three dimes. "Exact change only please." You mean, no more...*Nickleback*?! And the world was a better place, with no more war or famine. And the shadow of the worlds worst band ever was forever cast into the darkness. ~The End
+ims0deranged Well, the nickel is comprised of quite a bit (relatively) more expensive copper and nickel. Were it to be replaced with zinc, its cost would be noticeably reduced. Oh, you were simply making a Nickelback joke. ... ha.
Government inefficiency at its best. There are enough pennies in circulation that even if the mints stop making them, we will not run out any time soon.
Considering most people pay with cards anyways, I dont see why we don't just stop producing physical pennies, and round to the nearest 5 cents when paying cash (as it's pretty useless when paying with cash, but you can still pay 3.94 with a card without them)
I really laughed out loud at this comment, its crazy how far we've come for someone to pretty much say we don't even need to use cash since everyone pays with cards our dependence on technology will be our downfall one day.
In addition to the halfpenny we've had a twenty-cent coin, fractional notes (a special dollar bill meant to be torn into four "quarters") & a three-cent coin to pay for postage. In 1982 they changed how the penny was produced partway through the year, so there are many similar, but different, pennies from that year to collect (should you be so inclined). Also, dime was originally spelled" disme". ........and that's all I've got to say about *that* .
Don’t forget the 2 cent coin! And if you count gold coins we’ve had $2.50, $4, $5, $10, and $20 dollar coins. Half dollars are also still kicking around but they only mint around 2-3 million a year for collectors.
Well keep throwing your pennies on the ground !! My wife and I picked up $127 last year and that is only pennies we had $150 in loose change and $50 in bills !! It amazing how much we pick up when we go out shopping . so this year we turned in $80 to lighten the bags we have filled so far !! =)
+Stephen Salamone , i have 2 jars of pennies so far , they will add up, i once had $70.oo in pennies, i think this video was worthless , get rid of the penny and the tax thugs can tax us more.
+Stephen Salamone Honestly, they shouldn't get rid of the penny entirely. I would not object to seeing them mint it only every other year, though. We've got a LOT of pennies in circulation that will tide us over just fine. And yeah... I save my pennies to throw in a jar because they take up too much space in my wallet otherwise. You'd be amazed at how quickly that loose change can add up.
***** my wife cashed in $150 in dimes,nickles,quarters today and last week $50 in pennies, that is what she cashed in I have not cashed in yet . we have had a very good year.
KamikazethecatII As said in the video Lincoln is also in the US$5 bill!!! Those people are just stupid and we need to get rid of the dollar bill as well and replace it with the already made dollar coins that the U.S. makes at the same time as the bill which is just as stupid as keeping the 1¢ coin!
KamikazethecatII How in the heck is tradition that Lincoln has to be on the 1¢ coin when no president showed up on US coinage until almost the end of the 19th century?! Also how are we keeping his memory alive on such a worthless coin!? That would say we don't care about him; he is better remembered on the five than on the 1 cent coin!!!!!
I worked at Sears about 10 years ago (fuck that place) and they had an incredibly bizarre hatred for nickles. Pennies were cool, dimes were good, but nickles were no good. We were told to avoid taking nickles at all costs. When we'd get out cash tills at the start of the day, there would be no nickles. If you were to ask why they hated nickles, you'd just get "we don't use nickles" Was my store the only one like this or is/was Sears really that fucking weird? (PS- they'd also keep the thermostat at around 80 degrees at any given time during the summer. An old lady passed out on the escalator once and nobody gave a fuck. But when corporate would plan a visit to the store, you could tell. The thermostat would be lowered to 70 degrees 4-5 days ahead of their arrival. It would be cranked back up after they left. This thermostat was controlled by some assholes in Michigan)
+StaticImage I think that might have just been your store. Though I've never worked at Sears, I've been to a bunch of them and the temperature was normal. I've also gotten nickels as change there. Whoever was in charge of yours had some serious problems.
dllexport- Oh, that much is for sure. Nobody in that company at the time was normal. But Sears actually wasn't the only store in the mall that did that. Another anchor store did it as well. This was directly after the K-Mart merger, and K-mart were the ones that took over most operations. It has been far more comfortable in that store since I left, but that nickle thing always baffled me.
William Brennan That's where the thermostat was set for a very large store in an area that can get extremely hot and humid. It was unbearable for some people. It's not the 80 you'd have outside. There is open air and at least something to make the area around you feel less dripping wet and awful. Inside, it was muggy and dead air.
it's funny how Canada is ahead of the US in terms of transactions. We already got rid of pennies and we already have chip card system which you guys recently adapted to.
+TM56 chip machines are uncommon and tapping is rare. In Canada I can tap at most places with the rest being chip. Magnetic really doesn't exist anymore.
+TM56 I have lived in the United States for 27 of my 28 years with the only year I didn't was during a tour of duty. I have also lived in 4 states for extended periods of time(New York, Texas, Arizona, and South Carolina) Having chips in cards is not common at all. It has just started to become prevalent. The federal military bank I have has yet to change my bank from Texas has not changed and my credit union bank, from New York has just recently converted(so recently my new card is in the mail). Is that enough credentials to fit into your claim as being American? I do not understand why you would be upset about American banking practices. It is no insult to the people of the United States and being informed about the issue can only help.
@Funke Motor @stoneoffarewell 1. It's ambiguous how much the person in the saying is worth. So you don't have enough information to determine if the statement is factually inaccurate or not. All we know is that "whoever doesn't respect the penny isn't worth a dollar." So it could be true or not. It's more of a statement of opinion. and 2. it's not a metaphor because that would require a direct and literal comparison. This is only a saying of opinion about someone's worth. Metaphor would be more like "whoever doesn't respect the penny is a dollar"
I can't believe such lighthearted topics were ever covered on this show.
The penny pandemic is still RAGING across America!! And now the liberal media is so OBSESSED with fads like a "global health crisis" that they re suddenly IGNORING their previous pet projects? In an election year?? Where's they're handing out billions and even TRILLIONS of pennies to people for "rent" and "food"? COINCIDENCE?!?
Re-elect Trump and he will make the penny FUNGIBLE again!
...I'm sorry. I don't know why I was compelled to write this. I think my brain and heart are broken.
Trial Conesiaur you wrote what everyone else is feeling. We understand, take care of yourself, and god speed for a better country.
A world before trump. I can safely say that because since then almost every episode has been about trump.
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@@trialconesiaur1638 5tfffftfffzffffrrdrrrfffrrrrrdrrrrxdx,but the fact ,right ✅ 👌 👏 6ft the dream was free drddrthatr,rdrrrrr,dr,f when 🤔 RR had the that you for a, it is drrddddrdddddrrdrdrd
"whatever is easier. I don't care. Am I helping" Me during every group project ever
Lmfao that was amazing hahaha
Nice
Lol its mina from my hero!
@@labrava8125 Yeah shes cool
My mom's dog died of copper poisoning.
Only John Oliver can title a video "Pennies" and I'm like, "Yep, gotta watch that."
Indeed. And i'm not even from the US. :)
And get nearly nine million views (at this time) with it.
Eh, Jon Stewart could have done it to the same effect. YOU WILL NEVER GET OUT OF HIS SHADOW, OLIVER. NEVER.
👍🏻😂😂😂 soo true
What about CGP Grey?
Ahhh the old times when John could dedicate a whole Episode to Pennies because the world wasn't constantly on fire. Good Times.
He did one about hairstyles a few months ago
It was about how systemic racism leads to things like small children being expelled preschool for wearing natural hair, or that black hair care products are kept under lock & key while more expensive products are free for anyone to take
Not just "hairstyles"
@@Hehe-nt4oe yes but if you watched it you’d know it was about how Black folks’ cultural hairstyles are disgustingly policed and it starts with young ass children, at the expense of their education. Ie the kid with braids who was literally told to shave his head or not come back to school. Idk if that specific example was included in the video but it’s a big example that gained a LOT of media attention. The hair episode is not a good example of dedicating episodes on subjects when the world isn’t on fire. This one was rooted in racism. So😒
@@aliioana8586 "rooted" I don't know if I should
The world's been burnin' since the world's been turnin'...
I'd honestly forgotten that Ireland got rid of the penny and I fucking live there. That's how inconsequential it is
+Evan Stirling Yeah but we just round off our cash transactions and we stopped minting the 1c and 2c coins. I haven't seen a penny in months.
“I wish somewhere in the world a mouse has a good day” that’s so cuuuuuuute
Grow up
@@DopeyDetector i have, in fact, grown up in the five years since i left that comment. i’m almost twenty now. that’s how time works
edit: and i still think mice are cute
Me at the beginning: No way John Oliver can make me care about pennies.
Me 9 minutes later: PENNIES MUST BE STOPPED!!
In Canada, we got rid of the penny in 2012. Now prices are just rounded to the next whole number. It saves time. It saves weight in your wallet. It means charities get more money via those spinning wheels young children love and it means the government saves money by not printing useless coins. It's a win-win for everyone. The fact that the United States STILL hasn't gotten rid of the penny is ludicrous.
@tgmforum The U.S. is often averse to getting rid of things that no longer work. Like the Electoral College, or whatever that law is that prevents Puerto Rico from being a State.
"It has always been done that way so we aren't changing"
Bao Doan No law prevents Puerto Rico from being a state. Congress could admit Puerto Rico as a state anytime they wanted. However, it’s a politically divisive issue both in Congress, and also in Puerto Rico. There isn’t a clear consensus Puerto Ricans necessarily want to become a state at all.
@@thegrayyernaut Talking about Puerto Rico and the electoral college aren’t great examples because they are much more complicated and politically decisive. Nobody gives a f- about the penny.
@@seanmatthewking and finally congress agreed. penny has gotten a death sentence.
In Canada, we got rid of the penny is 2012. And the effect is glorious. Whenever something is 12 cents, you give a dime. If something is 18 cents, you give two dimes. Most stores don't even care if you give them a dime and a nickel. It saves a lot of time and saves giving a lot of fucks.
@tgmforum tgmforum probably because of taxes.
@tgmforum tgmforum taxes as they are are set a percentages. If someone sells something for a dollar where I live there is 8 cents of tax. in order for that to be a number that is easily divisible by five either the tax code has to be rewritten or companies have to start purposely setting prices so that the math works out. neither of these options is as easy as just rounding.
@tgmforum Prices still exists in single cent increments here. Anything paid by debit or credit card is still charged the normal price. It's only when using cash that the price is rounded to the nearest nickel.
In brazil we dont have them since the mid 2000s
I've read somewhere that when the US got rid of the half-penny, it had buying power similar to what the dime does for us today, so really if we were to follow our previous footsteps we'd at least get rid of the nickel too.
Gnoggin That was long ago.
+Vlad Baran But still relevant. +Gnoggin is saying they had the "courage" to get rid of something worth 10 cents by today's standards, and the world didn't end. I would honestly be happy if we got rid of pennies, nickels, AND dimes.
+Gnoggin Knowing our Congress, they'd probably fuck it up by ditching nickels but keeping pennies.
+Simon Carlile That's completely absurd. Your Congress would never do anything.
+truthsmiles Fuck it, let's get rid of all capital!
I love how when Canada wants to do something (like dump the penny) they just do it and no one makes a fuss. We don't have stupid lobbies for silly things like keeping a coin around, unlike America who seems to have a lobby for everything.
Because Canada is awesome
+lacountess we do have a lobby for everything....want to change the design of mens underwear? good luck. The underwear corporations will lobby to make a bill that imposes a design limitation on men's underwear...i dont know if thats true....but i wouldnt be surprised
+lacountess To be fair with how little a Canadian penny was worth they should have dropped it a hundred years ago.
+lacountess lol, there definitely were people against removing the penny in Canada. It wasn't a super smooth change. There was debates about what to do with prices inbetween 1 and 9 (save 5). I think most people were annoyed that the penny did nothing.
Many people collect pennies. It's weird but they do it. I would say penny removal went pretty quickly though.
It was kind of a non-issue really, nothing much to make a fuss about. :)
As a cashier, I can assure you that pennies are the bane of all existence...
right back at you
Go get a better job
I did an experiment awhile back in the cafeteria where I worked. I put a penny on top of a nickel on top of a napkin dispenser. They stayed there for a few hours. I noticed later the nickel was gone but the penny was still there.
Note this: The penny was on top of the nickel. It was MORE work to just take the nickel than to just grab both of them.
This tells me the penny has a NEGATIVE value. They are not worth the cost of counting them, or picking them up if they fall. Good riddance!
of course, is the cost-opportunity of carrying it, instead of having two cents in your pocket you could have a nickel
Bullshit. It tells ME that the person who took the nickel is too stupid to realize that MONEY IS STILL MONEY NO MATTER HOW SMALL THE DENOMINATION. And then y'all wonder why it's so hard to save up. * EYEROLL *
@@Serai3
It's still money 💵 . No one is arguing that point. Some of us value TIME more than money. If I drop or find a penny, will I pick it up? No way. That's taking a few seconds out of my life (time) with essentially no benefit of return (purchasing power). The only "gain" you achieve is the physical exercise of retrieving that penny. (if you want to do a hundred knee-bends to "earn" $1, be my guest! 😅)
Even if I get pennies in my change from a cashier, I usually leave them on the counter or I toss them in the trash on the way out. I probably lose $10-20 a year, but it's worth it.
I've noticed a lot of stores will just round the change up and keep pennies out of the equation.
+James S. Amazing to see how some people flaunt their privilege. SMH
@@Serai3 This isn't privilege. They just pointed out the fact that a penny has no purchase power. In many places, quite literally - many stores don't accept payment in them. That effectively means that if you live in an area where businesses around you don't accept pennies, they are literally worthless pieces of metal. For it to have any purchase power at all, you'd have to collect a very large amount of them and then find a specific store or a way to use them. That's precisely why most pennies are out of circulation already.
Furthermore: at the moment of its removal, the half-penny was worth more than a penny is today.
Actually, it was worth more than the dime is worth today.
@@ashermoss6958 i thought it was a nickel
@@jmurray1110 Nope
@@patricklinford689 might just be mixing up the values now much is a nickle im not exactly american
@@jmurray1110 nickle is 5¢
"So I went to a live recording of Last Week Tonight the other day."
"Wow, that's awesome, man! What was the topic?"
"Pennies."
Diamond Axe Studios lol
We got rid of the penny in Canada...
we still live
Ace Diamonds Because losing the penny definitely decreased living conditions in a country /s
+Paul Blichmann Actually it's due to a deficit from a declining crude oil market so "not the penny alone" is more like not the penny at all
+GraVeu I think "living" is a relative term when you consider that "summer" in Canada means two months of bad skating on the lake...
+blackhawkswincup2010 and yet with have free health care, somewhat affordable uni tuition, pensions for the old, & unemployed, and all those scary things that republicans hate...and Canada can still manage to be a top country to live in. Beat that. Eh? Buddy
+Mario Yu What good is free health care when you freeze your cojones off by the time you get to the hospital? Love hockey, though. Go Blackhawks!
But I discovered you can sand off the copper on one side, stack 'em up with vinegar-soaked paper between them, and power an LED! Instant night-light! And it costs only pennies! (Clothes-pin extra.)
Good to know for when the zombies start appearing
Pennies: vending machines don't take them, toll booths don't take them, and pretty soon charities will be saying 'fuck this; you keep your worthless zinc'.
+sunshinekanatan
CoinStar takes them
+Diego Garcia Except you pay a fee to use coin star which pretty much kills anything you make on the pennies.
+LotsaFails Unplug the network cable before you start dumping them. It can't calculate the charge without the server connection.
+Stugon Monday You are going to have to wait at least a hundred years for it to be worth anything more than a dollar unless its one of those collector item with a rare year. Even those are still pretty cheap. We just have way too many of these.
There should be an Organization of Charities that melts down the penny and get some return profit maybe.
John: "that penny is also in your pocket"
Me: looks down at dress
Me: "in my *pocket* you say"
Nature's pocket.
shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit
Looks at my jeans that have pockets sewn shut
Me: well crap
@bruh but you need to let the penny lie in a freezer for 2-3 hours before inserting it in Nature's pocket...
Consult a doctor if you experience a frozen penny teleported into your vagina by John Oliver for longer than four hours.
Don't forget that when the half-cent was eliminated, the value of the penny was what a QUARTER is now. In other words, eliminating the half-cent back in the day would be functionally equivalent to eliminating all coins less than 25 cents. By comparison eliminating our modern penny would make almost no difference.
Jesus, it's amazing to hear how privileged some people are without even knowing it.
Go ahead and loose the nickle while we are at it. Drop a decimal point and make a dime the lowest unit. (yes the quarter would have to be replaced with something that doesn't end in .05).
At this point there is no real reason not to make everything round to the nearest 10 cents.
I use pennies at self checkout at Walmart and Kroger. Yes cashiers can refuse penny payments but self checkout machines cant.
Cashiers can only turn down large quantities of pennies. Usually it's 100 pennies.
@@andiward7068 where I live they wont take anymore than groups of 50 bc you can put it in a roll
I do too
At my local Walmart, the self checkout machines don't even take cash. You're very fortunate.
@@andiward7068 same!
Yeah. We dropped the penny in Canada a few years back. Life went on. The transition was pretty painless, really. I keep a 1965 penny on my desk though because it's my mother's year of birth and her name's Penny.
But yeah, get rid of 'em, guys. Trust me, it'll be okay.
+Ruby Doomsday "I keep a 1965 penny on my desk though because it's my mother's year of birth and her name's Penny"
That's actually pretty cool
Did you guys round up or down? That is my fear, our govt will round up and call it a new tax.
Plus I have been broke to where I would scrounge for change just so I could buy bread or rice. Prices are already high enough and our economy is greedy enough to figure out how to use the drop in pennies to up prices more.
I guess I am just jaded from being in really tough times.
I make good money now but 15yrs ago I didn't. A coworker bragged how she never picked up pennies and would vacuum them up when cleaning her car. She scoffed at saving them cause after a year it would only be a few dollars. It isn't like you could go on vacation with what you saved.
From someone struggling to survive that was hard to hear. I still save e very penny because I don't want to struggle like that ever again.
+Kyla Luv We round to the nearest 5. So if it's $1.77, it rounds to &1.75, if it's $1.78, it rounds to &1.80. That's only if you're paying with cash though. If you pay with debit or credit it's just the cost of the item, no rounding.
+Kyla Luv We do both actually. Depends on the company though. The law is that they have to round to the nearest nickel. BUT some companies will always round down.
+AdamOfNebb In America, most prices end in .99, then .95, and on the dollar. It wouldn't be hard for us to adjust.
You're right Oliver. We do need to get rid of the penny. It just makes CENTS. We need some CHANGE in this country.
Stop.
Bob Narley WOWWWW.
Bob Narley goddamnit
Vito Corleone
Bob Narley GODAMN IT, BOB!!!!
ive never not picked up a penny
+Destry Soule I seriously hate you
jimbo
what? why?
+Destry Soule I would actually pick it up and put it like in higher ground so that a dog or child doesn't pick it up.
+Destry Soule I'm right there with you. I actually feel kind of bad when I see a penny I can't maneuver to pick up. And I spend them!
I used to.
Take all the pennies and stack them up to make a full scale model of the Lincoln memorial
At that point the dog had more Lincoln in him than Mary Todd. LMAO.
February 2016 is a loooong time, we want John Oliver every week dammit!
I'm going through withdrawal right now.
+Meier Yerger For this season.
+noelwym123 Has it been renewed for another season?
+Lennyohh for 2 seasons, yes
+Beepop Menace WHAT
NO
I NEED MY ENGLISH GOD TO WELCOME ME WITH HIS SWEET SWEET KNOWLEDGE EVERY MONDAY MORNING
“Whatever’s easier, man. I don’t really care.” 😂
Chris D am I helping?
Your profile picture. Where are you from, 9GAG?
Yay meme baby
“Am I helping?” Is so adorable
Canada got rid of the penny already. They seem to be able to do everything the US can't.
Yeah, we here in the United States of America pretty much just sit around sucking deep fried garbage out of a putrified corpses punctured taint. Fortunately the country is going to collapse within 30 months from now, so you won't have to worry about us for long. I look forward to dying in the riots.
I'm waiting for the discussion about getting rid of the following (for about the same reasons this video pointed out: price and commodity):
1) The dollar bill to a coin
1B) Heck, why not a 2 dollar coin like we have!
2) Paper bills to polymer bills (cheaper and WAY harder to counterfeit).
What do you mean by "us"? Are you a commie??!! 😠😠
@@thegardenofeatin5965 hi I'm from the future and the economy has collapsed and 30+ million people are unemployed
It's baffling to me that the U.S. still has pennies and non-polymer bills. You guys are really good at doing things that aren't in your best interest! I was still working as a cashier at a casino when they got rid of pennies here in Canada. Man, was I stoked about it. No more having to count people's giant Ziploc bags full of pennies they'd bring in (because my bosses were too cheap to buy a coin counter).
My ADHD ass would immediately get distracted and pick up every single one.
Found the vampire.
Same, I collect pennies
Find a Penny Pick It Up Something, Something Good Luck 😁
You dont have ADHD, you're just an attention seeking brat.
make a video when u do it! ... picking up 100 penys with your ass, must be internet gold!
Lmao I can't believe they actually counted all the pennies. I would have just weighed each bucket...
Lol who makes fake pennies?
It is worthless for the government to manufacture them what is left for someone to fake them... On top of that they were all brand-new and brought from banks in boxes therefore - no dirt, no erode, no difference at all.
If you make fake pennies, you're doing it wrong
Who makes fake pennies?
it can be one toy plastic penny hidden in 100000 coins
I agree. Just weigh 10 pennies, weigh the coins and see if it is roughly the correct weight. Any miscalculation is easily made up by the time saved not having to count them.
I love pennies. Unless it’s dangerous to pick them up, like in a cross walk or the middle of the street, I always do. Once, I rolled $375 in pennies to pay bills. Those coins that no one else wants have helped me stay out of the red on a number of occasions. I also really enjoy collecting the older ones. It always surprises me to find a wheat penny and it makes my whole day that much more joyous. People are crazy for throwing away money. It’s the same for me when they throw bottles or cans out. That’s a whole nickel you’re throwing out there, and sometimes a dime. Like, honestly, I’m not too proud to take two seconds to pick it up. It’s like $38 in gas I’m getting from turning those containers in every two weeks. It makes a difference.
Damn straight.
You're collecting 3800 pennies every 2 weeks? That's 270 pennies a day. I don't know what you do but most people do not have time to scour the streets for hundreds of pennies every day. I'm impressed though.
I think it probably partly depends on the cost of living in a location, and probably the typical wages.
I agree, I've been saving spare change, mostly pennies, for years now. It might be silly, but I don't see the point in throwing away money. Sure, it'll be work to roll then all when it's time to put it in my account, but I kinda get satisfaction from saving the coins.
@tgmforum it took several hours, but yes 37,500 pennies. It was quite a lot. I’ve gotten pretty quick at it. You can make stacks of the same height and then double check them to make sure they’re 10c each. Or get a coin sorter. I have one that’s clear plastic where you put a handful of coins in the top and it sorts them. It has marks on the side that give you an approximate amount at that level, but not all coins are the same thickness. They ware down over time. So you have to double check the count but it makes the process faster. Since quarantine people have been staying in the house and using card instead of coins. It’s also a bit dangerous to collect coins and discarded recycling right now with the pandemic. But the coin shortage means people who collect coins are the only ones who have them right now. The scarcity increases their value.
I seriously hate the 1 euro-cent. The 2 euro-cent is something I rarely use but honestly, the lowest currency needed is 5 cents.
Woop switzerland!!!
+Nikkimond
all the .99 prices everywhere! i dont want to give my money away for nothing.. if its 1,99 i wanna pay 1,99 and not 2,00!
AlphaDream
if the system collapses or malfunctions, you're fucked! cash is freedom!
AlphaDream
im well aware of that! but what are you gonna change? getting rid of physical money is gonna benefit the 1% even more then it does now, cause you've got no control over your money anymore once its gone!
+AlphaDream
If you're having trouble opening a bank account, you're a kid, or you're still getting your citizenship together, cash is useful.
Hmmm does this mean I can convert $100 into pennies and then melt the pennies down and sell the raw material for $170 since it costs $1.70 to make pennies now?
+Generalkidd Yes. People used to do that a lot, but the government caught on and made it illegal.
no bc pennies dont cost $1.70 they cost .017. i would put a cent sign on here, but the penny is so fucking worthless that it doesn't deserve to have a sign nor to be spelt correctly.
+Alex Martinez math is not your thing I guess. That's okay
I was gonna leave you alone but it felt like a sin to not point out your stupidity. The cent (1¢) costs 1.7¢ to make, therefore the cost to make a cent is 1.7 times its value. $100 worth of cents multiplied by 1.7 is $170, which is a net increase of $70. No, the cent doesnt cost $1.70 to make (mistake in original comment) because thats a 17000% price increase, not a 170% increase, but it would still yield a profit.
That comment was to slex martinez
I pick up pennies, and I spend them. I almost never have more than 4 pennies at a time. If I buy something that costs $7.03, I'll hand the clerk a ten-dollar bill and three pennies. Nobody ever needs more than four pennies, so I don't understand why anyone ever has to roll them. Spend them!
If you want to have some fun sometime, buy something for, say, $7.38, and hand the clerk a ten-dollar bill, two quarters, and three pennies, and watch their brain fry.
+Silkendrum I couldn't do that to a clerk. Do you get angry with them when they become flustered?
+David Adams
No. I just smile and wait while they figure it out. They are a bit flustered at first when they try to give me the coins back and take it all out of the ten, and I tell them no, to use the coins, but then when they do figure it out and see what I get back, they nod and smile. It's not that complicated, and I think some of the teenaged clerks end up proud of themselves.
+Silkendrum Cool. I guess people get stymied from being out of practice. I remember, back when registers were just becoming automated, customers gleeful at the prospect of tripping up the cashier.
+Silkendrum im going to say that you should be very mindful of who you do that to, I just spent 6 minuutes and I am still stuck,( and before people go calling me names for this, Yes I am Autistic and yes i have multiple learning difficulities includining math,) the thing is a lot of people have legitimate disabilities related to thing like math who do work in retail and who may be put up as a cashier because low staff or something, I think this sort of thing is ok in some situatuions as log as your mindful ie this isnt an ok idea if there is a line or some such.
my friends: how's quarantine going? whatcha watching?
me:
Hey look, I found another one! :)
Oliver had some sick burns this episode.
mostly toward bill cosby
Suck it, Shyamalan!
Poor Mary Todd 😂 she was slain by Oliver
The parking fine dude.
That's the definition of an asswipe
While we're at it, let's dump Daylight Savings Time, too.
+LowFlyin' For real. It's so useless and super-outdated and serves nothing more than to make people an hour late or early the very next day. It's the year 2015. No one can regulate their daily activities, errands, and work schedule based on how little or how much light there is outside. Nowadays, I personally just know that the daylight lasts shorter during the Fall and Winter and longer during Spring and Summer. I wouldn't have a problem with them dropping that outdated tradition at all.
+LowFlyin' Actually, I prefer Daylight Savings Time. I am of the mind to dump Standard Time. I like the sun later in the day.
Sean Cook But an hour later really makes that much difference for you?
+Dathotness4ya
An hour a day, for many weeks, makes a difference. Such surface level thinking and poor insight.
Dathotness4ya Actually, yes.
THE MAN AT 3:42 IS MY OLD HISTORY TEACHER FROM 8th GRADE HAHAHA
Alex Minagawa Are you serious? lmaooo
“This thing isn’t worth the gold it’s made of” isn’t a phrase I thought I’d remember from an episode of futurama today, but I’m not complaining.
It's like America was so advanced in the 50s....then they just stayed there
They're literally wasting $5,600,000/yr on nothing
As an American, I have known this since I was eight years old. :|
+Heeey Devon Devon come back!... Devon!... Devon... Deeeevoon!
hmmm sadly true . Times have changed seems there's more less motivated people in the world
fallout refrence?
But John, if we get rid of the penny, what are Americans going to throw at homeless people on the side of the road?
Nothing.
+TitanicNeoTyphlosion Better change, Nickels?
+BlackPuma
Savage
Bottles of sulfuric acid.
Throw clothes at them, we should help our homeless pts vets before we let refugees in
Here's some Irony for you.
If they stopped making pennies, their value as collector's items would skyrocket.
Not for a while.
Given the number of pennies in circulation it would take at least a hundred years for anyone to care.
Pennies went out of circulation here in Canada back in, what, 2012? You can still find thousands of the worthless copper-zinc alloy disks lying in the gutters. I have a jar with probably $15 worth of pennies just sitting on a shelf from back when I just wanted the f*ckers out my damn wallet because all they were good for was taking up space.
Brian Nolf I have a penny from the 1940’s, is that worth anything yet?
@@Diphenhydra My guess is it's probably worth about 1 cent.
I remember living in England during the 1980's and having half-pennies being the same way. People looked at you like you had 3 heads when you tried to use one
When I was leaving USA I spent an hour wondering around the airport and looking for a charity box I could dump my two pounds of change into. And I did, eventually. The workers watching me stuff their box with coins were quite perplexed.
Give them to me next time
Hamster discus competitions?! Oliver, you're a god damn genius! CALL THE OLYMPICS
Okay, my view was that we HAVE to have the lowest possible denomination in our currency system, but then I saw the bit about the half-penny. So thank you for the education and for changing my mind.
You think you just got educated? I just found out that Ireland is in the process of dropping the penny... and I'm Irish. In my defense I've been living in the UK for a couple of years now, but it still seems like something I shouldn't have heard about in a Last Week Tonight clip XD
+CrownedWithLaurels Yep 1 and 2 cent coins are gone in Ireland now, it's about time.
A historic moment: someone on TH-cam admits that they were wrong and that the video corrected them. Bless you, Eric Carter.
But what is the lowest possible denomination in you currency system? Currently, it is a hundredth of a dollar, that is, a fraction, and theoretically a dollar could be divided in any number of fractions, or no fraction at all. Anyway, in my country, Chile, we don't have a fractional currency, but we still got rid of the $1 and $5 coins and nothing happened.
We do not miss the copper being in circulation. Everyone kept some pennies, because they were an important currency in our history. It didn't make sense, to keep making cents.
"They basically make EVERYTHING a burglar would leave behind." 😂😂😂😂😂😂😆😆😆😆😆😆😀😀😀😀😀😀
I think they would take the class ring. Lightweight & can be sold at any pawn or cash4gold business.
@tgmforum They can be melted or broken down for materials. Won't get what you paid for it but it's still money.
no need for sleep.
+Trison Dahal Sleep is for the weak...
A fool sleeps when he has to a smart man sleeps when not wathing youtube...
+Trison Dahal Who needs sleep? Pfft, so what if i have a 9am class tomorrow?
+Trison Dahal Every week someone makes this retarded comment. 9 minutes more? Oh the horror.
+Trison Dahal sleep? whats sleep?
Glancing through the comments, it seems they come in three groups 1. New Zealanders bragging about their country 2. Canadians bragging about their country 3. People who thought John Oliver was talking about penises
I'm not sure what this says about John Oliver fans.
+OtherGonzo It says there's a lot of insecure Canadians and New Zealanders with a small dick complex. But John Oliver is still funny.
+OtherGonzo 4. People talking about these two videos:
CGP Grey: th-cam.com/video/y5UT04p5f7U/w-d-xo.html
Vlogbrothers: th-cam.com/video/77C47XYm_3c/w-d-xo.html
It means we don't care about pennies.
+OtherGonzo In my mind I read your comment to the tune of "jingle bells" :D
"Glancing through the comments
it seems they come in three groups
lalala [...]"
+TM56 Insecure because we did something smart without hesitation? Figure out your country, bro.
Yep, pennies are hilariously useless. I put any I get into a special cup so they aren't mixed with the more valuable coins (in case I need to use change for something it's easier to find). Then I wait till I'm going to a coin star and use them then. THEN, I throw whatever I get back in pennies on the ground in the parking lot.
+BaresarkSlayne We can all take a lesson in time management from you.
Dathotness4ya Sounds like you are assuming this takes more than a few heartbeats to do.
+BaresarkSlayne This comment made me laugh. I'd do the same thing
+BaresarkSlayne Can you send me those pennies? Mu country's currency is falling.
+BaresarkSlayne Do you regularly laugh about their uselessness?
Three words:
Penny Pressing Machines
When you realize your watching a 10 minute youtube video about pennies. But its John Oliver so its worth it :D
Regular people: *walks away from pennies*
Me: *picks up every single penny that I can see* because one day, those pennies that I collected could be $1,000 or more. Now that's some rich people money.
+Blue Panda Uchiha or it could actually be not worth anything as there are still too many of them. But hey! maybe your great great great great great great grand childeren might get that 1000 bucks.
***** Another mans thrash is another mans treasure.
Blue Panda Uchiha sure except it does not apply. The worth of something also depends on the scarcity of things. This is the reason why even money over 100 years old in a lot of cases is not worth as much as you would think.
Same with other objects. As long as there is a lot of those then its not worth a whole lot.
A good example for this is bible. My mother for example almost 10 years ago. While work at the church as a caretaker found old bibles in the attic, the oldest dating back all the way to the 1600's. You would think wow that is old. So the church had an expert come and take a look. Sadly because there are still many copies out there of that bible, it is not worth a whole lot. Despite being close to 400 years old.
***** but STILL alot of pennies can make alot of money. Any penny that you see on the ground pick it up because later in life that penny can be worth something in the future. "A bowl is most useful when it is empty"-Laozi
Blue Panda Uchiha It could be, never said you should not pick a penny up. But becoming maybe rich by it or even a windfall of 1k is probably not going to happen anytime soon.
joke's on you I have no pockets.
Jack LaPiano
Yup. Only these stupid fake pockets. So annoying.
Jack LaPiano neither do most ladies clothing...
You have nature's pocket....
Yeah that's an outdated Futurama joke.
Jokes on you I have no money-
jokes on you I'm so broke I don't even have pants
Jackass McPenny's Precious Little Parking Spot 😂😂😂😂😂
So you know whose car to tear up😉.
I got the cops called on me for paying using 109 pennies at a 711
lol m8 i r8 9/11
+YannYann12345 no
Ella Powell yes
indeed
You criminal. XD
"Am I helping?" I'm in love w him.
Discontinuing production of the penny would probably ultimately raise the value of the penny based on increasing rarity.
*****
Just read about how Canada did it and that was two year ago or so.
+Jonathan Hartwig just go look in a garbage dumb or a dogs ass
+Jonathan Hartwig It would still be useless as currency.
It would take 60+ years for the penny supply to be reduced through random tossing into garbage cans, the ocean, and damage for pennies to finally be worth like, 10 cents in an antique store.
+Jonathan Hartwig the value of the penny will always be 1 cent, doesn't matter how rare they are. the 2 dollar bills are pretty rare already, but they're still only worth 2 dollars.
2019, America still has pennies.
2020, America still has pennies.
Casimir Paul along with COVID19 and a ton of other shit that makes this year suck
The U.S. has never minted any pennies.
Mid-2020: the US has significantly larger problems than pennies. Also nobody handles cash of any kind anymore if they can avoid it.
"You know where else we put him? THE FIVE DOLLAR BILL!!" The way he says it so excitingly, i just cant...
Can't we just turn the penny into the $2 bill? Like you stop making them but they're still usable as cash.
That's what Canada did. Worked pretty well for us
Canada didn't turn the penny into the toonie
They outright got rid of it
+PokéPersona no in merica we have a 2 dollar bill that we don't print anymore but you can still use it
The 2 dollar bill is still printed. It just isn't as common as other bills.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_two-dollar_bill
you let me know in advance so I can change all my money to pennies and increase my wealth 200% fold! :D
20 views? What? That is like, the cost to make 13 pennies.
Savage
+Michael D. Rodgers yeah more like 1.3 pennies
+sasracer1 "Whatever's easier, I don't care. ...am I helping"
"When people were scared of the moon and wiped their ass with rocks" 😂😂
I came across your comment as he said that, very much roflmao
How I long for the days when Last Week Tonight had the luxury of doing a deep dive on something so inconsequential!
The same argument can be made for the 1 and 2 euro cents coins.
We don't use those in the Netherlands
We're also phasing them out in Ireland
+Marco Rocha So many coins and they all look the same, Euro is the worst.
+JePPeL They might look the same, but even a blind person can tell them apart.
+JePPeL at least their value is indicated on the coin
and at least you can easily tell the bills apart
Am I the only one frugal enough to pick up every coin I find?
No, you are not. There are other dopes out there who don't realize that that skipping a large order of fries once a year will make you more.
You probably spend more money in the amount of food and water used to power your body in the act of picking up a penny than you gain from the penny itself. It's like negative calories, but more useless.
No. I pick up and save all the change I can. I then wrap it and exchange it for bills at my local bank. It helps a lot.
No. I roll probably $25-$30 in pennies every year. Granted, I don't know if I'd get down on my hands and knees and pick up $1.50 worth but it's still currency. I've never understood the argument, "well it costs more to make them then they're worth". Ok, fair enough. But a 20 dollar bill doesn't cost $20 to make either. With the exception of the penny I'm pretty sure every other denomination costs less to produce than it's actual monetary worth.
+irishmike2182 that's the point you moron, you're spending more money making the currency then what it's worth
this suit-shirt-tie combo looks GREAT
Canada got rid of their pennies recently. :) Just sayin'.
But we use those. And if someone dropped them on the ground for us to pick up OH YES we would!
Yeah but you're not thinking about the name of the coin. You're just thinking "Oh shit, 1 dollar! And it didn't blow away in the wind like an American one would!"
Bobby Ferg To have a name for our currency? Not exactly an odd occurrence.
Bobby Ferg I know, right? You said "your" instead of "you're" up there.
1 and 2 dollars are still valuable , ppl use it.
"Ma'am your total is $15.34"
Fuuucckk
That's when you grab a penny from the penny jar and hand it to the cashier so you can get a nickel instead, or in your example a quarter and a dime.
So $15.35 not a big deal
Cameron Young ikr that‘s what happens in most countries.
I mentioned this in this thread. Because of sales taxes and American prices not including the tax in the shelf price, the cost always comes down to the penny, like you said $13.23 or whatever.
Coupled with almost every retail store and every restaurant charging .99 in their price, which absolutely annoys me because retailers think their customer is stupid and will read $4.99 as much cheaper than $5.00.
Other nations have easily given up their worthless coinage because the price on the shelf is the price you pay., including sales taxes or VAT or whatever.
So the only way to practically eliminate the penny is again have the price on the shelf as the price you pay and the retailers/restaurants stopping the 99 bullshit (they will just do .95 instead of .99 however).
99cent store definitely need pennies.
The penny used to be made of 100% solid copper, and made a decent washer/rove
used on the inside of a riveted boat plant attachment . Now they are made of sink.
The halfpenny was worth a modern dime when they got rid of it.
When's the last time you found anything worth a single dime?
I live near a dollar store and a random surplus store. The cheapest things there are 75c for 50 toothpicks & 50c for a cheap refrigerator magnet.
The only I can think of at all worth less than 25c is loose candy, at which point you're better off just selling it 3/25c, than 1/10c.
At my local dollar store, all the non-food items are $1.10 because of sales tax. So there's that.
We should replace the penny with small loans of a million dollars.
Inflation would be a big issue, but at least Donald Trump's dad would be proud.
Gigabic
Inflation is caused by mexicans and their beans.
+agun17 The best comment I've read all day. Thanks for making me laugh.
+agun17 Minimum wage advocate nutcases would love it.
I don't think Donald Trumps mouth would appreciate having to say small loan of a million dollars that much. Small loan of a million dollars, papa bless
As a Canadian, I will now laugh at America.
As do we all
+Nathanael Unger "...will now...???" What took you so long to join the club? I've been doing it for nearly 2 decades! =;-)
As an American, I will now also laugh at America. And then I will cry.
Bailie Boo Respect!!! =;-)
+Nathanael Unger Who really wants to live in Canada? It's a frozen shithole, let's be honest..
honestly, this is one of the best LWTs---all of john's jokes (and digs, really) we're excellent
I've never not picked up a penny. I always save them away among other change and every few months put them in the little coin rolls and take them to the bank for cash. I normally get a good extra $40-50 bucks from it. Then again, I am a poor af college kid and that is actually quite substantial for me lol. It equals about 5 tops from Forever 21 or 40 of the little Kraft Mac & Cheese bowls, both of which I am down for any day.
Also that guy who paid his fine in pennies is a huge frickin asshole. He deserves his own parking spot, but in the far, far back of the commuter lot. You know, that area so far back it's more used for smoking pot and f*cking than actual parking.
+Alyssa Schiffman --- but if instead of collecting up pennies from each transaction, rolling them up and cashing them in, you handed the cashier some of those coins in each transaction, you'd have the exact same money [just in larger denomination coins and bills]
+Alyssa Schiffman Next time take them to the Coin Star machine. Before you start dumping them in, disconnect the network cable from the back and it can't connect to charge you.
In Canada we thankfully stopped minting our one-cent coin in 2013. It took the public maybe about a week to get used to rounding cash totals to the nearest five cents. It was long overdue!
Death to Pennies by CGP Grey anyone?
+Anastasia Mashintseva I've noticed quite a few parallels between John Oliver and CGP Grey LOL
+SciGuy Crossing my fingers for a segment on Instant-runoff voting soon.
YES
+Anastasia Mashintseva and Vlogbrothers
+Anastasia Mashintseva Exactly what I was thinking about when I saw this.
well im glad to see someone forwarded CGPGrey's video to John Oliver
That Shyamalan joke was fucking brilliant lmao
No hashtag, no campaign.
#getridofpenises
a lot of commenters claim to have misread the video title as "penises" instead of "pennies"
#endthepenny
+frollard #DeathToPennies !
#ReleasethePennies
has anyone shown john green this video?
+Erica Bourland MY PEOPLE HAVE ARRIVED.
+Sarah Darkhand Oh, _yes!_ One of the thoughts that stuck most with me throughout the video was probably, "Has John seen this video?? Someone should show John this video!" This is the comment that I descended to the comment section of this video looking for!
AYYY :) It's always fun to find nerdfighters in other corners of the internet.
Erica Bourland I know, right? It's good to remember how far Nerdfighteria has really spread and how we can find each other in even relatively remote places... DFTBA!
Dftba! :)
I love the shade John casually throws Mary Todds way.😂😂😂😂😂😂
The Nickle is a lot worse. About 9 cents to make one. I wouldn't be opposed to getting rid of both. But therein lies the math problems with just the dime and quarter. " Your total is $1.75" Gives a dollar bill, two quarters and three dimes. "Exact change only please." You mean, no more...*Nickleback*?! And the world was a better place, with no more war or famine. And the shadow of the worlds worst band ever was forever cast into the darkness. ~The End
why not just give them 3 quarters?
+ims0deranged I always thought Nickelback was a pun on Quarterback, like the football position.
No-one says we must have a dime and a quarter. We could have a 10¢, 20¢, and 50¢ piece.
+Simon Carlile Does it make you wet?
+ims0deranged Well, the nickel is comprised of quite a bit (relatively) more expensive copper and nickel. Were it to be replaced with zinc, its cost would be noticeably reduced. Oh, you were simply making a Nickelback joke. ... ha.
Government inefficiency at its best. There are enough pennies in circulation that even if the mints stop making them, we will not run out any time soon.
Considering most people pay with cards anyways, I dont see why we don't just stop producing physical pennies, and round to the nearest 5 cents when paying cash (as it's pretty useless when paying with cash, but you can still pay 3.94 with a card without them)
That is how Canada does it. It has worked pretty well these last 3 years
I really laughed out loud at this comment, its crazy how far we've come for someone to pretty much say we don't even need to use cash since everyone pays with cards our dependence on technology will be our downfall one day.
In addition to the halfpenny we've had a twenty-cent coin, fractional notes (a special dollar bill meant to be torn into four "quarters") & a three-cent coin to pay for postage.
In 1982 they changed how the penny was produced partway through the year, so there are many similar, but different, pennies from that year to collect (should you be so inclined).
Also, dime was originally spelled" disme".
........and that's all I've got to say about *that* .
You're a damn scholar
Loooove the Gump reference. I use that quote quite often.
Numismatist detected in sector 1. Deploying countermeasures.
Ahem. I just use Visa for everything.
And 2 dollar bills!
Don’t forget the 2 cent coin! And if you count gold coins we’ve had $2.50, $4, $5, $10, and $20 dollar coins. Half dollars are also still kicking around but they only mint around 2-3 million a year for collectors.
Well keep throwing your pennies on the ground !! My wife and I picked up $127 last year and that is only pennies we had $150 in loose change and $50 in bills !! It amazing how much we pick up when we go out shopping . so this year we turned in $80 to lighten the bags we have filled so far !! =)
+Stephen Salamone , i have 2 jars of pennies so far , they will add up, i once had $70.oo in pennies, i think this video was worthless , get rid of the penny and the tax thugs can tax us more.
+Stephen Salamone Honestly, they shouldn't get rid of the penny entirely. I would not object to seeing them mint it only every other year, though. We've got a LOT of pennies in circulation that will tide us over just fine. And yeah... I save my pennies to throw in a jar because they take up too much space in my wallet otherwise. You'd be amazed at how quickly that loose change can add up.
Nickels, dimes and quarters add up faster.
*****
my wife cashed in $150 in dimes,nickles,quarters today and last week $50 in pennies, that is what she cashed in I have not cashed in yet . we have had a very good year.
+Karen Bear yeah, by a whole 4 cents every transaction if they go full assery on us.
That Cosby roast was brutal.
Totally, I wish I could 'like' twice when I heard that
@@Telerian3 i dislike the vid, the Cosby show was better than this horse shit.
Yeah, no I think I'd pick them up
Jew
+Noah Anderson (Weastwasfine) stereotyping american moron detected
ARM THE DRUMPF-CANNONS!
When you're in college and you're broke af
Same. If it was just one, than no. But that many, sure.
door door The time you lose is worth more than those couple of cents
6 years later we still have the penny
Do you guys still have it?
How about America just makes pennies worth 2 cents?
KamikazethecatII
Why would we at all need such a coin when we don't even use the currently legal $2 dollar bill?!
sion8 It pleases the people who want Lincoln and keeps it from being worth less than it costs to make.
KamikazethecatII
As said in the video Lincoln is also in the US$5 bill!!! Those people are just stupid and we need to get rid of the dollar bill as well and replace it with the already made dollar coins that the U.S. makes at the same time as the bill which is just as stupid as keeping the 1¢ coin!
sion8 These people are only stupid according to their opponents. Tradition is important.
KamikazethecatII
How in the heck is tradition that Lincoln has to be on the 1¢ coin when no president showed up on US coinage until almost the end of the 19th century?! Also how are we keeping his memory alive on such a worthless coin!? That would say we don't care about him; he is better remembered on the five than on the 1 cent coin!!!!!
I worked at Sears about 10 years ago (fuck that place) and they had an incredibly bizarre hatred for nickles. Pennies were cool, dimes were good, but nickles were no good. We were told to avoid taking nickles at all costs. When we'd get out cash tills at the start of the day, there would be no nickles. If you were to ask why they hated nickles, you'd just get "we don't use nickles"
Was my store the only one like this or is/was Sears really that fucking weird?
(PS- they'd also keep the thermostat at around 80 degrees at any given time during the summer. An old lady passed out on the escalator once and nobody gave a fuck. But when corporate would plan a visit to the store, you could tell. The thermostat would be lowered to 70 degrees 4-5 days ahead of their arrival. It would be cranked back up after they left. This thermostat was controlled by some assholes in Michigan)
+StaticImage I think that might have just been your store. Though I've never worked at Sears, I've been to a bunch of them and the temperature was normal. I've also gotten nickels as change there. Whoever was in charge of yours had some serious problems.
dllexport-
Oh, that much is for sure. Nobody in that company at the time was normal. But Sears actually wasn't the only store in the mall that did that. Another anchor store did it as well. This was directly after the K-Mart merger, and K-mart were the ones that took over most operations. It has been far more comfortable in that store since I left, but that nickle thing always baffled me.
+StaticImage What's wrong with the thermostat thing? I keep mine at 78 in the summer, it's fine.
William Brennan
That's where the thermostat was set for a very large store in an area that can get extremely hot and humid. It was unbearable for some people. It's not the 80 you'd have outside. There is open air and at least something to make the area around you feel less dripping wet and awful. Inside, it was muggy and dead air.
Ah yes, the humidity, hadn't thought of that. Yeah, that's a little stupid.
Oh, I thought it said 'Penis'. Maybe I should learn how to read.
I thought it was penis to
haha me too
Same... Damn, we a bunch of dirty ass mf.
No we are just stupid fucks that can't read for shit
+Jaon Luttrell I guess I'm dislexis
Fun fact: at the time we got rid of the half cent, it had the same purchasing power that a dime has today.
it's funny how Canada is ahead of the US in terms of transactions. We already got rid of pennies and we already have chip card system which you guys recently adapted to.
+Raj Ghuman The US has had a chip card system for a long time, businesses are just slow to adopt it.
+TM56 chip machines are uncommon and tapping is rare. In Canada I can tap at most places with the rest being chip. Magnetic really doesn't exist anymore.
bensemus x Clearly you don't live in the US. Please stop talking.
How is it funny? I didn't notice a punch line or a haha.
+TM56 I have lived in the United States for 27 of my 28 years with the only year I didn't was during a tour of duty. I have also lived in 4 states for extended periods of time(New York, Texas, Arizona, and South Carolina) Having chips in cards is not common at all. It has just started to become prevalent. The federal military bank I have has yet to change my bank from Texas has not changed and my credit union bank, from New York has just recently converted(so recently my new card is in the mail). Is that enough credentials to fit into your claim as being American? I do not understand why you would be upset about American banking practices. It is no insult to the people of the United States and being informed about the issue can only help.
in German we have a saying that's like whoever doesn't respect the penny isn't worth the dollar
+stoneoffarel That's a factually inaccurate saying, unless it's just a metaphor. Oh wait, it probably is!
+Funke Motor it means you should always pick up money ... and it's just a saying
@Funke Motor @stoneoffarewell 1. It's ambiguous how much the person in the saying is worth. So you don't have enough information to determine if the statement is factually inaccurate or not. All we know is that "whoever doesn't respect the penny isn't worth a dollar." So it could be true or not. It's more of a statement of opinion. and 2. it's not a metaphor because that would require a direct and literal comparison. This is only a saying of opinion about someone's worth. Metaphor would be more like "whoever doesn't respect the penny is a dollar"
in finland they round fractions of a euro down to 5 E.U cents. copy them america
fuck the eu.
+Jakobi26 american patriot moron detected
ARM THE DRUMPF-CANNONS!
hahahhahah
+Jakobi26 fuck the eu? no no no fuck eU
brexit is for idiots.i'm surrounded by MORONS over here!
As you can see this has not made an impact on this broken system. #yearslater
We don't even have 5 cent coins in New Zealand any more.
+Kate Lattey Don't do that.
+Kate Lattey It's luxurious. The 10c coin is the perfect unit to top up any small transaction. In US equivalent, that would be about the 5c though.
Us Australians should be catching up in a couple years time.
I hope Canada does that in the near future.