Monday, January 15, 2007
The Penny Must Die!
A recent tour of the United States Mint in Denver served to harden a conviction I've long held: the penny should be abolished. The Mint makes more pennies each year than all other coins combined! It costs 1.23 cents to make a penny. Then they are sold to banks for, um, one cent each. We make almost 8 billion of them a year, representing an $18 million burden on the taxpayer. Two-thirds of each year's production winds up in mayonnaisse jars, coffee cans, or the trash. Many others are tossed into "Give a Penny/Take a Penny" cups at checkout counters. They are no longer taken seriously as a medium of exchange. When asked why the Mint continues to produce pennies, our tour guide answered, "Congress has mandated it." I think it's time we un-mandated it. So, what do you think? A nickel for your thoughts...
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6 comments:
I agree!
But it does pose a problem.....
If the penny is gone, what will all the tightwads in the neighborhood give out on Halloween?
Here's my two cent's worth:
I don't give a red cent what they do...
What will happen to our axioms like, "a penny saved is a penny earned?"
I agree also. I hate pennies. I hate when something comes up to $.*1 and I don't have a penny so I am cursed with four of them! ARGH!
NO MORE PENNIES!
NO MORE PENNIES!
(O.K. Steve now tell us how you really feel ;-) )
1.23 cents per coin? Sounds penny wise and pound foolish to me....
The $5.01 problem won't go away just because you abolish the penny. You will start getting frustrated when you see $5.05.
Matt-
No more frustrated than I get with gasoline that costs 224.9 cents per gallon. They never offer to make change for the tenths of a cent; they just round it to the nearest cent. Let them round it to the nearest nickel; it's not going to frustrate me at all. Half of the time, I'll come out 1 or 2 cents short; the rest of the time, I'll be 1 or 2 cents to the good. It'll all even out.
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