$30 million press release

[Fredge]

According to this story the U.S. government is spending $30 million to ‘educate us’ about the new $20 bill.

Isn’t this a bit ludicrous? Evidentally some folks were confused by the last change to the $20 bill. Some more from the article:

Poor communication about the last changes in 1996 left cashiers confused, vending machines unable to take the new bill and old bills seen (incorrectly) as valueless in some foreign markets.

Evidentally, Non-U.S. folks aren’t so saavy as they’d have us believe. :rolleyes: According to the article, you are confused by our money:

It’s confusing for anyone, especially for those visiting the country, that all of our money is green.

I hazard to think what would happen if private businesses spent $30 million every time they needed to issue a press release.

[Otto]

It doesn’t strike me as all that unreasonable to spend some money to educate people on the new features.

[Fredge]

I agree, but $30 million seems a bit much to me.

[metroshane]

I’ll bet $30 million is less than the cost of dealing with the aftermath of not educating. saying that, I expect that the government is really a value shopper.

[DMark]

Let’s see:

500 pages of paper $1,000,000
250 paperclips $500,000
Laser printer cartridge $2,500,000
Misc $26,000,000

Hmm…looks like a standard Washington DC invoice to me.

APPROVED

[constantine]

*Originally posted by Fredge *
**I agree, but $30 million seems a bit much to me. **

$30 million is not a bit much . $30 million is an insane amount of money to spend on this, especially when it should be extraordinarilly easy to get free press coverage of this change.

Who remembers back in 2000 when the mint was running those TV ads about the new gold coins:

January 18, 2000

…

Beginning in early March, the Mint will launch a nationwide television, radio, print, transit and Internet advertising campaign to promote public and business-sector awareness and use of the Golden Dollar. The campaign will extend over four months and is expected to cost around $40 million. The cost of the public awareness campaign will be paid solely out of the Mint’s earned revenues.

That last part–about the cost being paid for out of the Mint’s revenues, is particularly laughable. If the Mint has “extra revenues,” these should be returned to the taxpayers, not wasted on a pointless tv ad campaign.

[Kent_Clark]

*Originally posted by constantine *
**$30 million is not a bit much . $30 million is an insane amount of money to spend on this, especially when it should be extraordinarilly easy to get free press coverage of this change.
**

Yeah, just like the tons of press coverage that made the Sacagewa dollar coin indispensible to U.S. commerce.:rolleyes:

[Fredge]

I don’t think lack of press killed dollar coins. I don’t think Americans want to be bothered with the extra weight. I’ve frequently got more than 5 $1 bills at a time; I surely wouldn’t want 5+ $1 coins in my pocket at one time though.

People won’t have a choice but to use the new $20 bills after a short time; old $20 bills will be taken out of circulation over the next few years (I believe this will happen - if I’m wrong please let me know). There was no such replacement plan for $1 coins though (i.e. $1 bills were not being taken out of circulation as the new coins came in to circulation).

With that said, I don’t see why such a huge P.R. campaign is necessary to get people using the new $20’s?

It’s already in the newspapers and I’m sure that hasn’t cost anywhere near $30 million. Nor would a treasury department web page. Of course, given how much is being spent on advertising, they probably paid $250,000 for this web page.

[friedo]

*Originally posted by constantine *
That last part–about the cost being paid for out of the Mint’s revenues, is particularly laughable. If the Mint has “extra revenues,” these should be returned to the taxpayers, not wasted on a pointless tv ad campaign.

The US mint is not funded by tax money. Indeed, most of its excess revenue is simply turned over to the treasury anyway.

[constantine]

*Originally posted by friedo *
**The US mint is not funded by tax money. Indeed, most of its excess revenue is simply turned over to the treasury anyway. **

This is an accounting game. The mint is not an independent entity–like a corporation operating under a government charter–but a part of the federal government. Just replace the word “Mint” in my post with the words “U.S. Government.”

If the U.S. Government generates revenues from selling proof sets and from “seignorage” (according the the U.S. Government the difference between what it costs to manufacture a coin and its value) then it should use those funds to reduce the tax burden on the citizens, not to fund a useless publicity campaign.