Thread: Playing a video game has taught me...

It takes 1.3 cents to make a penny. =D

Originally Posted by NeoSioType

That it takes 2 Yen to make every 1 Yen coin (Japan's currency).

I don't know about my own U.S. currency but I can't get my head around the idea. If it takes more money to make money wouldn't their economy always be shrinking? Unless of course they got more cash to compensate from outside countries? Why isn't it a 1:1 ratio?

It's probably like the materials required to make the Yen coin amount to 2 Yen if sold by themselves. And since we haven't run out of resources (yet).

This means that if you have the capacity to separate metals in coins in a high enough volume to offset the overhead costs, you can actually make money by destroying money. Go to the bank, get 100 dollars in pennies (for example), or 100,000 pennies. Melt em down and separate the metals. Sell them for 130 dollars. As long as you spent less than 30 dollars on the process, you just made money. Use it to destroy more money and then make more money, etc., ad infinitum. Of course, this would be technically illegal.

Its totally legal to melt down pennies and sell the scrap metal. Though you would also want to sort them as depending on the year it was made the amount of metal in them my differ.

I actually know some people who hoard pennies and stuff. Though I don't know if they ever got around to melting them down. The problem is carrying around a 100,000 pennies. And do you want to do that for 30 dollars?

Some do. People also joke about that, since all metal prices are up. They might eventually try making pennies out of rubber.

It takes something like $1.63 to make everything from $1.00 bills to $100 bills, so it all pretty much evens out.

It does bother me that the price of producing a $1 bill is the same as that of producing a $100 bill...

According to this site:
http://lrs.ed.uiuc.edu/students/tsul...omposition.htm

The US penny was 95% copper until 1982. It also lists masses. Doing a very rough calculation, let's assume that you can extract about 2.5g of copper from each pre-1983 penny. Copper is currently trading at about $1.43/lb, or $0.0003/g. As you can see, melting down pennies for copper is nowhere near feasible for generating income. This was a surprise to me, as copper production is peaking. Perhaps in a decade or two it will be closer.

Video games have taught me to be nice and work together, and to take charge of things when no one else will, so you can destroy the enemy hive.

Video games have taught me how to kill.

Originally Posted by Bonsay

Video games have taught me how to kill.

actually, a kid did learn how to perform CPR on someone from a video game.

Playing a video game taught me:

Life isn't just about passing on your genes. We can leave behind much more than just DNA. Through speech, music, literature and movies... what we've seen, heard, felt ...anger, joy and sorrow... these are the things I will pass on. That's what I live for.

We need to pass the torch, and let our children read our messy and sad history by its light. We have all the magic of the digital age to do that with. The human race will probably come to an end some time, and new species may rule over this planet. Earth may not be forever, but we still have the responsibility to leave what traces of life we can. Building the future and keeping the past alive are one and the same thing.

-- Solid Snake

Originally Posted by Licity

It does bother me that the price of producing a $1 bill is the same as that of producing a $100 bill...

Why? They are pieces of paper.

Originally Posted by Grod

Why? They are pieces of paper.

Agreed. It's not money because its material cost is equal in value to its applied worth in exchange, it's money because we expect to get an equal exchange for the markings on it. It's like a transferrable IOU that people use because it's easier to trade four or five pieces of paper and some copper pieces than a sheep. It doesn't matter what it should be worth, because it is worth whatever we're willing to trade for it.

Anyway, back on the original subject, the higher denominations even it out.

Originally Posted by JET73L

Agreed. It's not money because its material cost is equal in value to its applied worth in exchange, it's money because we expect to get an equal exchange for the markings on it. It's like a transferrable IOU that people use because it's easier to trade four or five pieces of paper and some copper pieces than a sheep. It doesn't matter what it should be worth, because it is worth whatever we're willing to trade for it.

Anyway, back on the original subject, the higher denominations even it out.

We don't use it because its easier, but because the government forces us to use it. The law states that people must accept the US dollar as payment for goods and services. If that law wasn't in effect, people would probably still be trading using silver and gold coins.

Originally Posted by Alric

We don't use it because its easier, but because the government forces us to use it. The law states that people must accept the US dollar as payment for goods and services. If that law wasn't in effect, people would probably still be trading using silver and gold coins.

No, they would be trading with silver and gold receipts, like before 1971. And inflation wouldn't be possible.

Originally Posted by Alric

We don't use it because its easier, but because the government forces us to use it. The law states that people must accept the US dollar as payment for goods and services. If that law wasn't in effect, people would probably still be trading using silver and gold coins.

Wrong, nearly everyone would still use money because it is easier than carrying around hundreds of pieces of gold.