[Info-vax] HP stopping VMS paper documentation ?

[Phillip Helbig---undress to reply]

In article
<733a93b7-87d0-4634-928f-e9007408fe53 at h21g2000yqg.googlegroups.com>, AEF
<spamsink2001 at yahoo.com> writes: 

> 1) If it costs 2 cents to make a penny, then you have to find a way to
> keep people from melting them. I suppose that's being done, but still
> I think you see what I mean.

Melting is illegal.  OK, that doesn't stop everyone.  But melting on a 
small scale is probably not worth the effort, and melting on a large 
scale would be suspicious.  (In Sweden, old gold coins are still legal 
tender, because it is illegal to melt legal tender coins.)

> 2) How much time and effort is wasted making change to this precision
> every time someone buys something with cash? Some say that rounding
> off to the nearest nickel will hurt the poor. 

Not if they are rounded down.  :-|

> Nonsense. Most prices
> end in nine's. The reason is that it makes the item look less
> expensive. For example, $7.99 looks much cheaper than $8.00.

Right.  And whoever believes this gets what he deserves.  Rounding can 
be down or up, like in Fortran.  This is actually practiced in many 
countries, together with abolishing the smallest denominations.

> Even if you don't believe it, that is what retailers and other sellers
> do and that's all that matters for my argument. (This almost certainly
> works for gas prices, as the 9/10 in the prices is rarely noticed at
> all. [It's actually a leftover from the early days when gas cost 23
> cents or so. {I vaguely remember seeing an old pump from my childhood
> days with such a price on it.}] 

Wow!  Correct bracket order (in some conventions).  I remember 19¢ per 
gallon in the early 70s, but during a gas war.  Normal price was about a 
quarter.

> So tenth's were a significant part of
> the total price.) So if we get rid of pennies the price will not go to
> $8.00 but instead to $7.95! This actually *helps* the poor.

That's not the way it would happen.

> And if keeping pennies instead actually helps the poor, why not issue
> 1/2 pennies, or even 1/10 pennies? It's because at some point it's not
> worth it. And due to inflation, nickels are now the best choice for
> the coin of lowest value.

I agree.