For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 15, 2010

Nowadays it would be pretty tough to write on a loonie ;). It’s worth even less today; won’t even buy a liter of gas (it’s $1.08/L where I live).

Why does Michael often seem like he has a bad Trump like comb over?

They wanted to do away with the $1 bill, use only coins. They last longer. But the public complained…

@gedgar – they keep trying. I read an article recently where the US govt has a large surplus of collector dollar coins because no one wants them. While I wouldn’t mind a dollar coin, it is sad that they keep trying unsuccessfully on our dime (so to speak).

lightenup: the dollar coin is a microcosm of why we are never actually going to reduce government spending. Reducing government spending means that some people, somewhere in the country, are going to be inconvenienced in some way. If we aren’t willing to put up with the tiny inconvenience of using a dollar coin instead of a dollar bill, something that will save the government billions in printing costs over the long haul, what are the chances any of us will accept the more significant inconveniences that would come with real spending cuts? About zero…

BTW, what’s with the crummy quality of the image today? Pixels all over the place. Looks like it was printed on an ’80s-vintage dot matrix printer…

Canada already has $1 and $2 coins. The vending machine industry loved it. At least it is far cheaper than re-printing high circulation bills. The government is still talking about phasing out the penny in Canada.

The times they are a “changing”…

Glad to see everyone in their usual negative mood today!

Glad to see everyone in their usual negative mood today!

I noticed the pixelation too, Puddleglum. GoComics has gone weird this morning.

I knew a guy who would only use coins cause he thought they were cleaner. He would wash his money in the sink every night. While I think he took it to extremes, he could be right. Paper can soak stuff up, but if you get ickyness on a coin, you can just rinse it off.

MY EYES! MY EYES! what’s happening to my eyes? all I see is low resolution!

AHEEEEEEeeee!

And her the controversy begins. Whew!!!! I thought it was a slow day today.

Smallest Euro bill is a ten. It was the same for the German Mark before the Euro.

How about making the dollar bill worth something? Revaluation of currency was a European favorite back in the “old” days. A 10:1 exchange would get us back to just about where the value was about 40 years ago. Or we could go 100:1 and turn the clock back about 80 years.

You think it was bad back then John wait until 2010.

Pre-war Germany had the right idea. It was cheaper to do the walls in Marks than wallpaper. Now if we (As represented by those saints in Washington) keep spending, borrowing, and printing money, we all will soon be millionaires. “Hey, I’ll give you this wheelbarrow of money for your chicken.” “No, but I’ll give you two for the wheelbarrow.

If I’m short of cash , I can a) buy hamburger b) buy steak on my Visa at 18% c) eat what I have at home.

Election time. Hope you grand kids can afford hamburg.”

Totally awesome, John! Taking both kiddos…grocery shopping, none-the-less! It’s always a warm-fuzzy to see things like this. =)

YOUR GOVERNMENT AT WORK Man arrested, cuffed after using $2 bills

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=29732

Elly probably told John to take the kids with him so that she could enjoy at least 30 minutes worth of bubble bath time alone on a Sunday in peace and quiet!

I spent a month working in England about 20 years ago and the pound note was already gone. I liked the pound coin. It is very distinctive and impossible to mix up with other coins. It is very thick which makes it stand out.

The other thing I liked was the vending machines where I worked. They all used a card. You reloaded it at a station in the lobby of the building. You just put as much on it as you wanted and the vending machine deducted what you purchased. This allowed them to set prices that may have actually more accurately reflected the price of things. The snack food machine had one item at 8 pence. With a coin-based machine, it would be rounded up to a dime.

I’m all for coin dollars but they need to do a better job of making them easy to tell by feel from other coins.

I still remember the day that I found a silver dollar in my grandfather’s coin collection. Well, back in the good old days, one silver dollar Canadian was worth 14 dollars US.

Baaaaaaack theeeennnnnnn…..

The problem with dollar coins is it’s so hard to spend them. I was in Wash.DC last month, and bought metro tickets out of the machine. The change was in dollar coins, but the stupid ticket machines would only accept bills, and nickels, dimes, and quarters. Likewise, newspaper machines will only take quarters and smaller.

Soup for a quarter? Geez, how old is he? And why hasn’t he gone grocery shopping for the past 40 years?

Before I was born (but I have 4 older siblings) our mom requested from our dad that her grocery budget be increased. He told her she just needed to do a better job of shopping. My mother rarely got upset, but (reportedly) cried and told him that he could do the shopping if he thought he could do a better job. Guess Dad went once, and then increased Mom’s budget. Dad was always a tightwad, but even he had to admit Mom was right that time.

If they do away with the dollar bill, how will be tip the gals at the strip bar?

We loaded up on 10 cent soup in my day!!!!!!!

I wonder if John charges the same today for a tooth cleaning or a filling as he did 20 years ago.

In Italy we have only coins for one and two euros (and the cents, of course), and the bills start only from five euros. The pockets are heavier but it worth it. :-)

@Tigger: yup. It’s almost 1:1 with the American dollar!

I hate tightwads. I live with one. I can see the selfishness in that person and I hate that trait.

Hey Lynn, Isn’t this supposed to be a CANADIAN strip? I am pretty sure that there haven’t been one dollar bills (or do you call then notes?) in Canada for some time. I never get any in change when I visit, only loonies