The United States should eliminate the penny. (Note: My mom is named Penny. I love my mom. We should not eliminate people named Penny. Or dogs named Penny. Or Inspector Gadget's niece named Penny.)In 2006, the price of metals went crazy. In April of 2006 (when this article was written), it cost 1.4 cents to make a penny. You know as well as I do that .4 cents times the trillionish pennies the government make each year equals a lot of money. Here is that sentence written mathematically, for you left-brained folks:
.4 cents
x 1 trillionish pennies
-----------------------
a lot of money
Fox News says that the US Mint makes "7 or 8 billion pennies" a year, resulting in a $20 million loss, but I think we can all agree that Kelly Walden News is just as reliable as Fox News. So, we're sticking to my math.
"This is all fine and dandy, Kel Bel, but how will I pay that $3.86 for my latte if there is no penny?" Oh, consumer, don't you worry! Businesses should have no trouble rounding. In fact, though my employer accept pennies, we round all of our prices to the nearest nickel. Heck, back when I worked at the movie theater, the company rounded everything to quarters! And if cheap-ass Regal Cinemas is willing to round, I guarantee you it doesn't cost much (or anything) to the business.
Plus, when you think about it, we're already rounding. Chances are that latte does
not cost $3.86, but $3.86.019. (Ok, chances really are it cost $1.03 and the coffee shop is ripping you off, but let's pretend that's not happening.) If we can round to the nearest .01 of a dollar, why not to .05?I realize that pennies are sweet and that our great-grandchildren would be confused by "Pennies from Heaven" if we eliminated the coin now, but that's no reason to waste millions of dollars every year. That money could go to things like, I don't know, ice cream. (Get it? It's MINT ice cream!) Or relieving poverty.
In conclusion, you should elect me into some important political office, because I am filled with good ideas. But not ice cream.
4 comments:
I agree. But mainly because I'm afraid of pennies in a weird germy way. Not scaredy-cat afraid, just terribly unfriendly to them. I always end up throwing them away/onto the ground, and have been known to tell cashiers not to give them to me.
sometimes love isn't practical! I love the penny, rock on pennies, I save them, collect them and when bored I count them!
Pennies forever! How about getting rid of something useless like the spoons and forks, after all someone cared enough to invent the spork. How much money would that save? Huh, think about it!
Kelly,
I am in complete agreement with you. In fact, I've detailed my thoughts on this subject in a post called Why We Can't Eliminate the Penny. Mostly, I focused on strippers, but I like your points too.
http://noahlotmore.blogspot.com/2007/09/why-we-cant-eliminate-penny.html
Noah
Pennies are so so over. Good point Walden. Pennies = lame.
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