value-of formattting

I'm using a Xalan processor and am slightly annoyed at one specific behavior.  When I use, for example, <xsl:value-of select="40000"/>, the result I see is "40,000" (with the comma).  Is there a way to get it to output without the comma?  I realize I could use the format-number() function to get rid of the comma, but I was just curious as to why the processor insists on putting the comma in for me by default?  Seems rather presumptious to assume what display format I'd like to see my number in.  :)  Thanks...

Ben Lors
Principal Financial Group
Des Moines, IA 
lors.ben@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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