$ = $10

[A18]

I think the penny has pretty much become worthless. We should introduce a new dollar in exchange for ten of the old ones so that all our coins will be worth something.

[A18]

Not exactly. I'm saying introduce a replacement currency, as France has done in the past, to make up for inflation (so the penny would be worth a dime, basically).

[A18]

It's not just that. Even dimes aren't worth much.

Under this, a dime would be worth a (current) dollar, for use in soda machines. A quarter would be $2.50.

[A18]

No, because they owe 100,000 old dollars. Basically, you'd just gradually phase out the old stuff.

[A18]

I just keep change in my pockets.

And if you only had bills, well, the lowest one could get you $10 worth of stuff. I don't know that there's much I'd buy for less than that.

[A18]

It would have no effect on investment; just the actual value of the currency (because everyone has less of it).

In other words, it's not going to help elderly people who made $25,000 back when it was worth $50,000. But it won't hurt, either.

[A18]

But it's not. It's just giving people one new dollar for every ten old dollars.

As currency flows through banks, old dollars can be scrapped for new ones.

[A18]

I don't understand how, though. It's just that ten old dollars would be one new dollar.

So say you go to the store. There'd need to be a new symbol for old dollars to distinguish between the two. If something's marked at 50 old dollars, it'll also be marked as 5 new dollars.

When old currency ends up in banks, they'll exchange it for new dollars when they give it back out (500 old dollars => 50 new dollars).

You'd always be able to go to the Federal Reserve and exchange old dollars for new dollars, but you wouldn't have to. It would just happen gradually over the course of a few years.

[A18]

It wouldn't be any more expensive because we already print new bills every year.

It would be stable because only the UNIT of wealth is actually changing. The amount of wealth is the same; one thing in old dollars, one in new.

[A18]

Originally? I came up with it when I was bored at lunch one day.

It was a typical lightbulb-on moment

[A18]

MODU,

I'm pretty sure, though, that the business getting that money wouldn't mind. And I'm pretty sure it'd happen to everyone's business. So wouldn't it just cycle through (slightly higher prices, slightly higher wages)?

Anyway, my suggestion wouldn't change the effective price to 75 cents, it'd change to 7 or 8 cents (70 or 80 old cents). The penny, would still exist--it'd just be 10 times rarer, like everything else.

It's true that you could just use different terminology, like 1 mark = 10 dollars, but the $ is tradition.

I'm also for making coins out of silver again, and pennies out of aged copper.

[A18]

There will always be a need for hard cash. I don't like the idea of using a credit card to make every transaction possible (especially if that means giving your CC number to the guy you lost a bet with).

Credit cards are going to become more and more important, but I sure hope they don't become the standard. Call me paranoid, but I have a really bad feeling about it.

[A18]

If hard cash is abolished, I will join al Qaeda

[A18]

Well, none of my credit card numbers are 666, so I guess I'm safe

But how do I buy stuff, then?

[A18]

There's a very simple solution to this, and that's to give me my own forum to post threads in.

Since my threads are the interesting ones anyway, it'll save people some time as well.

[A18]

Sounds like the GOP equiv of democraticunderground.org (i.e. the people who were posting stuff like "Rot in hell, bastard" when Reagan died). I'll pass.