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> other countries like Finland and Netherlands regretting the switch Oh man I absolutely do not. This makes life so much easier as a Dutch person. It felt a bi
by lucb1e 4y ago
> other countries like Finland and Netherlands regretting the switch
Oh man I absolutely do not. This makes life so much easier as a Dutch person. It felt a bit weird and was tricky to deal with and mentally convert Iceland's currency to something that makes sense to me while on holiday last year, or having prices for books and food in a stopover airport to Finland in another random currency despite to/from being all Schengen/EU. But that's just holidays and stopovers. Imagine this is part of your daily life as you go to a restaurant in Belgium, or get a drink after a walk in the Eifel in Germany. Even if you could pay by card (hah, germany and paying by card) the exchange fees would probably add up. Or buying hardware in a German media markt that isn't available in the Netherlands, gotta do math and factor in exchange fees.
No thank you, Euros all the way. I'm not economically literate enough to say whether it would be a good idea to have a world currency, but I'd be in favor of working towards that sort of thing if it were sensible (probably you get into issues like some places having a ton of inflation while others are negative and not being able to balance it out with a central bank, but again, I don't truly know the impact of that).
- mbg721 4y agoYou alluded to this with respect to Germany, but the less cash-based daily life is, the less of a big deal the currency change is. As long as the machine goes beep, it can go beep in drachmas or rand or pesos or whatever.
- lucb1e 4y agoAt what fees, though? Within SEPA it's now zero. I can buy computer parts in Germany without considering that downside. Kind of the useful for this 'one market' thing they are trying to have going on. And the mental math every time. I can trust that a coffee is going to be a bit overpriced at worst (but not a real mistake), but is it worth driving 5 minutes to a petrol station that sell it at 493 ISK the litre instead of 529 ISK? Should I buy this shirt for 1500 ISK as souvenir or is that insensible? Hard to tell.
- troad 4y agoI respectfully disagree, it still introduces a lot of unnecessary friction. Being in a Czech supermarket, for example, is confusing, because I don’t instantly know what “79” means, or whether “279” is cheap or expensive. The exchange rate is awkward for mental calculation (22.5 to a dollar). I could convert with my phone, but for a big shop where you’re buying dozens of things, that’s impractical. Euros would reduce the cognitive load of travel and business considerably.