I think the concept of the penny is necessary. I think the penny itself is not.
Prices can be rounded up or down (that candy bar costs $.50 instead of $.49; or gas is $2.00 instead of $1.99&9/10), but the sales tax associated with them is varies heavily from place to place.
For instance, around here 'normal' sales tax is 6.5%, on vices like liquor its 9.5%, and in downtown Seattle its 7.5%. Each number has legit reasons for being exactly where it is and result in hundreds of millions of dollars which provide a whole array of services to the state. Those pennies add up. Also, think about Wall Street. Your stock goes up one-half-of-one percent....depending on the price of your stock, that could be a few pennies- it could be a lot of pennies....the whole market trades on small amounts that have large effects. I'm not saying your portfolio manager is actually going to send you a crate full of pennies, but the concept of 1/100 of $ is a pretty important thing.
I'd rather businesses were just smart enough to calculate tax into the price of an item. I'd love it if everything just had a dollar sign on it- but let's be honest, that's not gonna happen.
This all being said, I hate pennies, and wish they existed only on paper.
|