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Amber dropped a line yesterday to share a story that might seem minor to some people, but which is important to her and many others. A U.S. Federal appeals court has ruled that paper money is unfair to the blind, which may force the Treasury Department to redesign our currency.
“This has been a big issue in the blindness community for a number of years now,” Amber writes. “I am curious to hear what you and your readers think of this issue. As for me, I am blind myself, and in grad school. I have seen this issue unfold for a number of years, and it will be interesting to see how it continues to go.”
Though I admit I’m uninformed on this issue, it seems like a good move. I can’t think of any substantive objections. The Treasury Department claims that it’ll be expensive to redesign the banknotes, but haven’t they been redesigning them for the past decade? Why didn’t they do something about this issue at that time? Surely they knew the problem existed. I, too, am curious to see what happens. It took a few days to get used to carrying different-sized bills when I was in London, but after a while it seemed perfectly natural.
Here are some other personal finance news from around the web:
At Business Week, Tammy Erickson wrote a piece outlining 10 reasons Gen Xers are unhappy at work. While the list is interesting, I don’t buy the notion that one generation is much different from another. I’ll bet Boomers had these same complaints twenty years ago.
Ever since our mail was stolen earlier this year, I’ve been careful of what goes in the mailbox. I’ve also become more wary of using checks. There’s reason to be concerned, writes Luke Mullins at U.S. News & World Report. He recently interviewed former crook Frank Abagnale, who shared five tips to avoid being a victim of check-fraud. Sometimes I worry that I’m just being paranoid, but it doesn’t take much extra effort to be safe.
Finally, the Mighty Bargain Hunter has a list of seven wise uses for your economic stimulus check. It may be tempting to buy one of those mega-gift cards at a local store (Kris and I have been tempted), but MBH says you’re better off putting the money into savings, investing it, or paying down debt. He’s right, of course.
This article is about Spare Change Wednesday, 21st May 2008 (by J.D. Roth)
May 21st, 2008 at 8:47 pm
This reminds me of the same issue that I heard a few months back regarding how the current websites are not designed for blind people. It is something worth thinking about how we can modify things we see take for granted (e.g. exchange of information through blogs) to better fit the blind community.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:34 pm
When I was a bank teller, I used to fold money in different ways for one of my blind customers so that they would know the denominations of each bill (they were particularly partial to $5’s). One of the reasons the government hasn’t changed the sizes of paper money is that they would need a different press plate or sheet size for each denomination printed - and there really is a significant cost in customizing by denomination - but I’m still surprised something hasn’t been done sooner.
As an Xer, I had mixed feelings about Erickson’s Business Week piece. I work in a Fortune 500 company, so I can relate about what she said regarding limited room at the top and individuals at all levels using different tactics to get there, but I’m not sure that’s necessarily generational. I think it may have more to do with personality and a sense of entitlement.
May 21st, 2008 at 9:58 pm
I completely agree with doing this, but I also think it will be pretty damn expensive. You mention “substantive objections.”
Cash drawers in all banks will need to be retrofitted, as will vending machines, presumably at the cost of the owners.
I hear that small-town gas-station owners are having trouble with $4.00 gas. Retrofitting our currancy will be like that, writ large.
May 21st, 2008 at 10:03 pm
If we expect and wish to help people become independent, then it makes perfect sense to help them to be so… Paper wears out and has to be replaced anyway. And the Mint is busy making new quarters for every State, $2 bills and $1 coins. Change the currency… Big deal. Oh yeah, lets ask the blind to tell us what **they** need… The alternative would probably be as successful as the $2 bill and $1 coin… And while we’re at it, lets get rid of pennies. We used to round to the nearest quarter on the military bases overseas when I was a kid… It worked just fine then and would work just fine now… Then we could lose the penny pots in all the stores as well..
Thx jegan
May 21st, 2008 at 10:10 pm
I think the article overlooks a key issue for Gen-x’rs, of which I’m one.
It’s not simply that we witnessed the reengineering of the 80s — we’ve also experienced the very real 90s and 00s where downsizing and rightsizing are the corporate way of life.
We’re unhappy because we KNOW the corporate types really don’t even care to pretend that they have a long term commitment to us. We are expendable. At any time, we can be cut loose. We have zero security on the job.
May 21st, 2008 at 11:00 pm
I found the Gen X article interesting. Not sure of the animosity towards Y’s. I found them to be lacking in social skills in the workplace and the problem wasn’t watching out for them cutting our throats, but rather getting them up to par dealing with real people and real issues. But they aren’t really that bad - just like any other group was when joining the workforce - you have some things you need to work out.
But I whole heartedly believe in the distrust of corporations…and add government to the list. I left a government job for self-employment. The gov’t job was too constricting and didn’t allow me room for growth or advancement, not at least that was due to skills and hard work. M
y husband owns his own practice and he’s toyed with the notion of moving back to our home state, but it would mean joining a hospital owned practice. I told him it would be the stupidest thing he could do cause he’d lose control and be working for someone else. To me freedom and mobility are the most important things you can have in you life.
May 21st, 2008 at 11:53 pm
There isn’t actually a need to have different sizes of paper money. In Canada they emboss some dots on the money. The number of dots and how it is grouped helps determine the bill one is holding.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:19 am
I put my stimulus check into my money market emergency fund. I think if I lost my job, but my partner didn’t, or vice-versa, we have filled it with six months of expenses. If we both get canned at the same time, we will have just a couple of months handy.
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:06 am
Hey gang…
I found this website and it says it all:
How I Spent My Stimulus
http://www.howispentmystimulus.com/
And I paid off one of my credit cards with mine!!! And it feels really, really good to be able to say that.
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:23 am
When, when, when are we going to learn that we can’t cater to every single special interest group that walks the face of the earth? Currency will one day go away. It’s use has already been significantly supplanted by debit cards. What then? Do we have to figure out a way to make the receipt “readable” by the visually impaired?
The poly strip is already in a different place on each note. Why isn’t this good enough?
And, who is going to enforce this ruling? Since the Treasury Dept is part of the Executive branch, and the Executive branch is responsible for the enforcement of the law, if a judge said the Treasury Department MUST redesign its currency, who is going to enforce the law? If the judge issues a fine, how does the Treasury department pay for it…in illegal money? These people need something to do.
For that matter, what about employers that pay via check? Is that “unfair” too? What about publicly owned and federally regulated airwaves? Are radio stations “unfair” to the deaf?
Life’s not fair. People have been dealing with it for eons. Who gets to decide what fair is anyway? “Fairness” is a subjective evaluation of circumstances based on one person’s or group’s opinion. Let’s move beyond fairness to common sense and reasoned intellect.
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:29 am
My hubby and I put the extra economic stimulus $ that we got for child credit into ING accounts for our kiddos (likely college).
May 22nd, 2008 at 4:33 am
The most common way to accommodate the blind is to create raised watermarks - during the papermaking process, subtly raised areas are created on the paper. The blind can sense these “embossed” areas, and they don’t wear out until the paper does.
This is how it is done here in Israel. No need to resize bills.
Considering the efforts put into recent US currency redesigns, it’s kinda silly that they didn’t take care of this as well.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:04 am
As a youngish X-er, I can tell you there is a big disconnect between the Boomers & Y’s I have worked with.
I have found the Boomers to be hard working to a fault & to have a lot more faith in a benevolent corporate King.
The Y monkeys have generally been easily bored, socially rude & in need of constant praise and recognition.
That being said, an X-er like me tends to match my output to the value I receive. The balance for me has to be LIFE/work.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:05 am
I disagree on the part about the stimulus checks. I say that it depends on the type of person that you are. If you’re the type of person who can snowball debt by paying down the highest interest first (if it’s not the lowest value), then this should work for you. If you’ve got a grocery store willing to give you an extra 10% for using your check there, cash your check there (making an extra $60 - $120 in the process), then use that gift card for your groceries (continuing to shop frugally), and use the $660 or $1320 that you would have gotten out of the check to pay off debt, or put into savings. I guess it’s the risk-averse thing again. If you’re worried about losing your job before you get the full value out of the gift card, then put the check in the bank. On the other hand, if you’re comfortable that you’re going to earn that money, and have the discipline to not spend it elsewhere (and put it right into savings, or paying down debt), then you end up making money on the deal (this is similar to the drug store game, IMHO).
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:07 am
Re: Gen X — Most of my peers are also mid-career folks in their 30s-40s. I completely relate to #2, 3, and 10, regarding distrust and narrowing of options in corporations. I’ve been living in the land of semi-annual layoffs for 8 years, so my loyalty definitely has limits, and I keep my eyes open for other opportunities. And our kids are young and demanding now. It’s only because I work for a company heavy on flexibility and telecommuting that I’m still working for a corporation. It’s almost like being my own boss, but with benefits. (It helps that most of the executives also have young children — they get it!)
I don’t deal with many Gen Yers at work. I live in the midwest, where people are still into following rules. So, the GenYers I deal with tend to, as well. Having lived on the west coast, I’m more of the cynical, rule-testing, hierarchy-wary iconoclast.
Re: making bills different sizes — about time!
Re: economic stimulus. We got an $1800 stimulus check, which we used to pay off medical bills and cover some of the additional costs of trying to get a house ready to sell. Not too stimulating, but it prevented us from dipping into the emergency fund.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:15 am
I believe there are small devices that can read aloud the domination of paper money. Wouldn’t it make more sense for blind people to use these instead of requiring that the money be changed? It seems rather stupdid to require the Treasury department, bank ATMs, grocery store self-checkout stations, and vending machines to change when there is a technological alternative.
May 22nd, 2008 at 5:34 am
I’m torn on this as changing the money will cost us a ton. Our entire system is based on paper money, and it cost’s the government much less to produce. Then again, this would just stimulate the economy. That being said, if I were blind I wouldn’t care.
The mail/identity theft issue isn’t just due to people breaking into your mailbox. The postman often delivers the wrong mail. Think about this when you get someone else’s coupons. What if it is your bank statement? What about those checks credit card companies love to send for cash advances?
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:10 am
I think there are some things that could be done that could reduce the costs of changing money to be blind friendly.
For example, all denominations could be made the same size or smaller than the current size. This would ensure that they would still fit in the tills.
Different paper types could be used, which would produce different textures, instead of different sizes.
A pattern of holes could be punched or embossed which would also allow tactile value checking.
A bar code or magnetic strip could be embedded or printed on (with magnetic ink) and the government could give away readers to the blind which would check the value and tell them either audibly, or through some other means what the value is (vibration patterns? dynamicly changing braile output?)
We just spent the last several years changing all the printing processes to do color ink and holographic(?) printing (the color changes with the angle you look at it). If these concerns had been addressed at that time, it wouldn’t have been that much more expensive I think.
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:45 am
Wow, I had no idea this was an issue for blind people. Makes sense though.
While I would of course support redesigning the currency, I’d be a little disappointed because my wallet was designed for the current size of bills. Its substantially smaller than a wallet designed to accommodate non-US bills. Guess I’ll have to switch to a money clip if that happens.
May 22nd, 2008 at 6:55 am
Also, now that I think about it, does the switch has to necessary mean changing the currency size?
Why not maybe do something like put an embossed hologram in a different location for each bill that the blind could learn to recognize by touch?
May 22nd, 2008 at 7:12 am
No, there’s no real need to make the currency different size. I just used that example because I remember that’s how British pounds were differentiated. I think it would be more cost-effective to do some sort of embossing, as many people have suggested…
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:04 am
It’s not the cost to the treasury to redesign currency that is the problem. How many soda machines, token machines, grocery store self checkouts, and other automated systems that accept cash will have to be redesigned? This has the potential to cost the economy millions, if not billions of dollars to do the conversion.
May 22nd, 2008 at 9:29 am
Considering all government web sites are supposed to comply with Section 508 ADA standards, I don’t see why currency shouldn’t as well. Still remember being a kid and buying a sock puppet from a blind guy wondering how he knew I gave him the right amount of money. Anyone interested in some more details of accessibility and usability (which is for more people than just the blind) can check out: https://www.section508.gov or http://www.usability.gov
Think too about things like the automatic door openers for the handicapped, those are very useful for people without disabilities as well. Sometimes, designing for all can really be a benefit for ALL!
~~~
As for the Gen X article, I’m with db. I’ve been with several companies and only the logo has changed. They could care less what lump-o-meat is in a chair as long as they are a means to an end that earns money. Too few companies put an emphasis on new ideas and not just working long hours, but working WELL. I think many Gen X’ers have lost their edge as their ideas have been put “on the back burner” and they have been forced to go along to get along in order to earn a living.
May 22nd, 2008 at 2:01 pm
Discrimination for no good reason is a bad thing. I’m British and our currency is different sizes partly to accommodate the blind but there are plenty of other ways of doing it. And it would help all sorts of people - you would be less likely to give the wrong note in a shop for example.
It can be done relatively inexpensively and it should be done. I fail to see the problem
.
May 22nd, 2008 at 3:39 pm
Here in Australia our currency notes are different sizes. All notes are the same height, but as the denominations increase, they become slightly longer (about 5mm I think).
They are also different colours, which helps vision impaired people.
May 29th, 2008 at 12:18 am
I concur with the poster who mentioned portable bill reader machines. They exist. It’s easy. I know we’re lititigious, but please.