Stolen Pennies Add Up Big Time
By Krepta, 26th May 2011 | Follow this author
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Posted in WikinutMoneyEconomics
This article is about a pet peeve of mine, I'll explain how dealing with fractions smaller than a penny is actually allowing people to steal pennies, and those stolen pennies add up fast.
- The gas pump, pumps pennies out of your pockets.
- 99 Cents Only Stores, no longer 99 Cents Only
- Psychological manipulation
- Bitcoin is infinitely fractionable.
The gas pump, pumps pennies out of your pockets.
Most gas price listings, if not all, that I've seen have 9/10ths at the end, but did you know that they round up at the register, or when the pump grabs money from your credit/bank card? I'll explain. If the price at the pump is $3.999 per gallon, and you get any amount of gallons that has anything in the one's position, such as 5, or 15, you will wind up with a fraction of a penny on your final price. So, 5 * $3.999 = $19.995. 15 * $3.999 = $59.985. As far as I know they Always round up, so you actually pay $20 and $59.99, respectively. And most people don't seem to notice, or care, because what's an extra penny here and there, right? But, the fact is, that's a form of theft, that seems to be legal. After all, they can't charge you Less for the gas than the listed price, can they?
Those stolen pennies add up, fast, in a very big company, and in a very big market. Imagine if Everything you buy came with a 9/10ths added to it? That means that 1,000,000,000 pennies adds up to $10,000,000. Now do you see why they do it? So they can fleece you!
99 Cents Only Stores, no longer 99 Cents Only
I recently found out that my beloved 99 Cents Only Stores are now actually adding that 9/10ths thing to everything, so it should actually be called the $0.999 Only Stores. They are fleecing their customers exactly the same way gas stations have been doing for years. So when I buy a product that is Listed as costing only 99 cents, what I pay at the register, if there is no extra sales tax tacked on, is actually $1!! Because, as I already explained, they Always Round Up! Rounding is theft!
Psychological manipulation
So, why is it that nearly everybody loves putting 9s on the ends of things? Because, apparently, human beings see the first number, and naturally think it's much smaller than the next number up, even though the difference is a tiny fraction. Not I. I've Always seen a $4.99 burger as being a $5 burger. Sure, saved pennies add up, eventually, I can put a penny in a jar for every item I buy that has the 9s inserted at the end. Unless my pennies are being stolen by a 9/10ths fraction that is always rounded up! Don't buy into the manipulation! If it's got nines in it, round up, beat them at their own game!
So, in my above example at the pump, 15 gallons times $3.999 won't come out to about $45, like your brain probably want's to think, because it isn't 15 * 3, it's much closer to 15 * 4, which means it's almost $60.
Bitcoin is infinitely fractionable.
One of the reasons I love Bitcoin is that it can be infinitely split into tinier and tinier fractions, No Rounding! For instance, on my Witcoin account I currently have 0.05231695 Bitcoin. It is never rounded, I can transfer that any time to my Bitcoin digital wallet and use it to pay for stuff. Or I can keep it on my Witcoin account and use it to post stuff, and vote on stuff. Go learn about Bitcoin from a great and easy to understand site, We Use Coins, and if you don't want to, or can't download and install the bitcoin client, go get a free account at My Bitcoin, which is kind of like an online bank account. I do not want to use Paypal, I would much rather be paid in Bitcoin, a Better Currency.
If you want, you can give me a bitcent, or two, at this bitcoin receiving address: 1EaxUc8GiLmtg5SSd4Pxh2ntgVvYraee1W
Peace, and I hope you enjoyed my article. :)
Comments
26th May 2011 (#)
Ok, I'm going to post a correction. As my Dad just proved to me, not every gas station rounds up. He got 12.004 gallons at $3.459 per gallon, which calculates out to $41.521836. The price they charged him on the receipt is $41.52. So, either they do pure rounding, down when it's small, up when it's big, or they always round down. If they always round down, I'll correct the article to reflect that.
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6th Jun 2011 (#)
Ok, I've got proof confirming what I said about rounding up. Mom got gas on a trip recently, and gave me the receipt. The station was selling gas at $3.869 per gallon, she got 7.035 gallons, the final price charged was $27.22. 3.869 * 7.035 = 27.218415, 27.22 - 27.218415 = 0.001585 stolen fraction of a dollar. Or 0.1585 stolen fraction of a cent. I know, most people couldn't care less about the extra faction of a cent, but it ads up, over hundreds of purchases per month, thousands per year, etc. Let's just say that is 0.001585 * 1000, that comes out to $1.585 stolen, right out of your pocket. I wouldn't be upset at all if they would just be honest about the listed price, and what they actually charge you at the end, but they aren't. This is a form of theft. Tiny micro amounts, certainly, but they do it because a really big corporation does millions of transactions a day, all over the country, or all over the world, and so these tiny fractions add up to a lot of money for them. Imagine if Everything you buy has a 9/10 cent added to the end of the price. Let's say milk, eggs, chips, and pop are all charged that way. Can you not see how every little thing you buy would be rounded because our currency doesn't have denominations smaller than a cent? I think working with fractions of the smallest possible denomination in our monetary system should be outlawed, never should have been allowed in the first place. But, like I said, most people, even readers of this article and comments, just probably don't care. I'm the odd duck that does. Quack!
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