Ban the penny Again/Still - The Econoclast

So I would attach a value of only $4/hr, just to understate the case, which implies a user time cost due to pennies of $16.2m [I had done a back of the envelope calculation that I mentioned on-air and come up with $10m]. This is per year!

What I observe in the UAE is that many times someone, even a child (male!), paying with cash will attempt to break in the line at the register, and they usually succeed. In doing so, the line breaker reduces his transactions costs. But why is this considered socially acceptable? Partly there are simply cultural differences about what is considered socially acceptable, and the UAE has people from all over the world. Partly, it is that the cashier is usually an immigrant who can be cowed.

A far as fretting over small change in cash transactions goes, the cashiers don't bother and customers don't seem to mind that the rounding goes in favor of the business.