? "Paul Anderson" ?????? ??? ??????
...
In article . com,
stonej wrote:

http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds...ap2118519.html

From the article:

On Thursday, Greek Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas said
low-denomination bills would help Europeans better understand the
value of the euro and deter businesses from overpricing basic items.

Are they saying that if people pay for an item with coins, where they
previously paid with bills, the perception is that it is cheaper?

Nope.
They are saying that older people who lived for decades with the drachmas
can better "feel" the value of the money if expressed in drachmas instead of
euros.
Same say the Italians, the French and quite every people in the EU.
And let's not forget UK that doesn't like to change its currency, one of the
reasons (maybe the smaller reason but nevertheless a reason) been that.

And
therefore, businesses are raising prices because the perception of
price is lower?

YES!
In Greece like in France, 100 drachmas "became" one euro, in France they say
one franc "became" one euro and so on...
Germans are protesting, too, and they say they want their mark back.
I don't think that people are stupid just because you can't get the essence
of the problem...

Are people in Greece really this stupid?

Yes Master Genius ;-)

One euro is one euro,
regardless of whether it's a coin or a bill.

Yeah, that's why Americans dislike the coin dollars and prefer to use the
dollar bills...
In your line of logic they must be stupid, too ;-)

If people are having
trouble transitioning from drachmas to euros, that's another story. I
fail to see how using a bill or a coin is going to help there.

Then pray tell why Americans prefer to use the bill instead of the coin ?...
It must help some people if they do that...

Why should they start making low-denomination bills just because Greece
didn't keep up with their own money system and kept ridiculously-low
bills in circulation?

Italy had even lower denominations but I see that you are not protesting
about "stupid" Italians...
Spain had small denominations quite like Greece.


PS
I am a Greek and I feel like that, so I must be stupid :-)...

--

E' mai possibile, oh porco di un cane, che le avventure
in codesto reame debban risolversi tutte con grandi
puttane! F.d.A

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Paul

--
Paul Anderson
OpenVMS Engineering
Hewlett-Packard Company