View source for The Baffling Way We Pronounce Numbers

Our number system is pretty easy to figure out.  We have our base decimal numbers, zero through nine, and beyond that we start constructing new numbers depending on how high we have reached (with a few strange exceptions, notably "eleven", "twelve", and the idea of adding "-teen" to prefixes past that for 11-19).  57,833 is, for example, fifty-seven thousand, eight hundred and thirty-three.  "Thousands" and "hundreds" are here taken as separate and then the sub-100 value is added to that.

Except most people make a very irritating exception for certain numbers at the single thousands level, and it infuriates me because of how inconsistent, strange, and out of sorts it sounds.

Take 5,700.  With the normal rules of pronouncing numbers, you get "five thousand, seven hundred."  But apparently that's too much for some people, and we get the laughably bad construct of "fifty-seven hundred."

Why?

When did we get this idea that numbers at this level need to be taken down to the previous level and we have to act like we're identifying a sub-100 number again, this time as a qualifier for the hundreds place?  It is inconsistent and makes absolutely no sense, yet I hear it all the time from everyone, including people who are supposedly smart enough to know better.  Watching "Jeopardy!" is frustrating because of all the people (even the host) asking for "sixteen hundred dollar" clues ($1600, "one thousand, six hundred dollars") and "ninety-eight hundred dollar" Daily Double bets ($9800, "nine thousand, eight hundred dollar").

I have heard people argue that it's easier and shorter to say the XX-hundred dollar way.  I counter that it isn't that much shorter, and it can sound confusing in some instances where one might confuse the starting "-ty" as its own separate number followed by a hundreds-level number.  Saying it like it is supposed to be said removes the confusion, the inconsistency, and levels out our representation of our number system in a way that is consistent over all numbers.  Do we say "21 hundred thousand" instead of "2 million, one hundred thousand" for 2,100,000?  I would hope not.  Even people who use that confusing way of representing numbers don't even use it consistently -- 3,000 isn't spoken as "thirty hundred", for example; they always pronounce it properly as "three thousand".  So why in the world would they use this "hundreds" system given that they don't even use it consistently?

Please, let's give up the idea of saying "fifty-two hundred" and so on for all of these numbers.  Pronounce them like they should be pronounced, and fix this irritating glitch in our language.

Five thousand, two hundred.  Easy.