The arguments for halting production of pennies basically boil down to the fact that “they’re more trouble than they’re worth.” Pennies today are worth almost nothing, but they still cost money to produce and consume vast quantities of natural resources. To anti-penny activists, that’s a lot of costs for a coin that can’t even buy a ball of gum anymore.
1. They’re Useless
When the Baby Boomers were young, a penny still had some value. Economist Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit research group, reminisces in a 2013 anti-penny screed about paying a nickel for an ice cream cone as a boy. Even during my childhood in the 1980s, there was a candy store not far from our house that sold “penny candy” in jars – one penny for a
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If you try paying for something in a store with a fistful of pennies, you can expect dirty looks from both the clerk and the other customers – if the store doesn’t just flat-out refuse to take them. Pennies are so hard to spend that many people don’t even bother – they just store them all in jars, or even throw them away. Economist Greg Mankiw of Harvard University argues that pennies are simply no longer useful as a means of exchange: “When people start leaving a monetary unit at the cash register for the next customer, the unit is too small to be …show more content…
Americans for Common Cents, the pro-penny group funded by the zinc industry, calls the claim “absurd.” In the first place, the group argues, employees who spend less time counting out change won’t necessarily spend it on other, more useful tasks. It also says there are “many reasons to believe” that time spent at the register could actually increase, rather than decrease, if pennies are eliminated – but it doesn’t actually say what those reasons are.
3. They’re Bad for the Environment
Despite what the old song says, pennies don’t really come from heaven. They come from mines in the earth – zinc mines, mostly, because pennies are more than 97% zinc. As the U.S. Mint explains, the copper surface of a penny accounts for only 2.5% of its metal content.
According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, zinc ores contain only 3% to 11% metallic zinc. Along with the zinc, the ores usually contain other metals, including toxic metals like cadmium and lead. In addition, zinc itself, though necessary in small amounts, is harmful in high doses to both humans and animals. All these toxic metals can contaminate water, soil, and plants in the area surrounding the
The Penny is a wonderful coin. It might only be worth one cent but that one cent can help people in all sought's of situations. The penny should kept in circulation. There are many people that use the penny still in today’s society.
Throughout the past decade, costs of everything have skyrocketed. According to Source C, America used to have “five and dime stores;” now its a dollar store. In addition, no one can buy anything with just a penny anymore. The source also made a fair observation that these worthless zinc disks are, “behind chair cushions or at the back of sock drawers next to your old tin-foil ball. Quarters and dimes circulated; pennies disappear because they are literally more trouble than they are worth.” According to a New York Times article, “it takes nearly a dime today to buy what a penny bought back in 1950.” The penny is still stuck in the 1950s while America just keeps moving on. As stated by Mark Lewis in his concept of establishing a bill, “the bill would not ban pennies, but merely discourage their use by establishing a system under which cash transactions would be rounded up or down.” (Source A) This motive will help keep the America exceed and
Have a good look at the penny, what do you see? You probably see nothing but a copper coated circular poor valued cent. Little does everyone know pennies have been around longer than before their grandparents, even their great-grandparents! Matter of fact, it was around so long ago that Abraham Lincoln’s face was not the first design on the penny. I ask that you take the time to consider the American penny’s worth. Without the people’s belief in its value, the penny will be abolished. I see people every day throwing away a penny rather than to put it in their pocket and save it for future uses. Yes a penny is "outdated, almost worthless, bothersome and wasteful" (Safire) piece of junk, but it's has an economic, cultural, and historical significance to the United States of America. The problem is that nobody pays attention to that, and that gives pennies the image of no value. Three good solutions to show the pennies worth include: tolls and vending machines accepting the coin, more charities to keep their penny drives, and historical evidence of what the penny mean to America so that it can be passed on to the future generations.
Back in the 1900’s kids all over would be so grateful to find a penny. Doing so meant they got to run to the local candy store. William Safire, author of “Abolish the Penny” agrees with the notation of abolishing the penny. In Safire's article he makes a strong claim stating that you, “can’t buy anything with a penny any more” (Safire). Expanding on that claim, there is no point in keeping something around that is taking a resource of zinc and copper, when the resource is being wasted to the garbage. Back in the day it would be absurd to throw such a useful coin away. There is no real need for the coin so keeping it around is simply
Millions of Americans work full-time, day in and day out, making near and sometimes just minimum wage. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them in part by the welfare claim, which promises that any job equals a better life. Barbara wondered how anyone can survive, let alone prosper, on $6-$7 an hour. Barbara moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, working in the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon realizes that even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts and in most cases more than one job was needed to make ends meet. Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all of its glory, consisting of
Have you ever been in a store and the person in front of the line is holding the line up by having the cashier count pennies. I have been in this situation many times and it gets really frustrating. Although there is a very simple solution to this issue that has occured to many people, and many times, all over the country. And the simple solution that I will bring up today is getting rid of the penny. There are many, many reasons to get rid of the penny and all of them would help the United States of America in the long run. The first reason is that pennies are just not worth it. The second reason is that getting rid of pennies would help the prices go down. The last reason that proves getting rid of the penny would help us is that many other
Many of Americans view the every day penny as only one cent that carries only little to no value, which is why they wind-up stashed away at the back of drawers. What most people don’t have a clue is the value it once held back in the days where a can of coke was about one cent. Our very own citizens who once fought battles and came home scarred knew that the penny wasn’t just one cent, it was the blood shed, their fallen brothers, and the never ending tears that symbolized one single Lincoln. Pennies are worth more than their currency, they are the history of our home and the beginning of where we stand today.
Pennies can generate a great quantity of hostility between a cashier and the customers. Once, as a young child, I wanted to empty my purse of its pennies. While I counted the pennies I needed, the cashier impatiently tapped their fingers on the register with their eyes staring at the pennies, willing them to burn up. The frustration spreaded to the other customers, leading them to argue and complain. Hurriedly, I searched for the last few pennies before almost throwing the pennies onto the counter. The calamity the pennies had brought upon could have been avoided, but everyone who witnessed the scene left the store vexed. Pennies produce more trouble than good. In the United States, the one-cent unit has become a huge controversy. Over time, the penny has lost its worth and value, prompting many to advocate for its elimination. The United States’ economy has advanced and evolved so remarkably that the penny should be abolished because it no longer
A buyer brings along with him snacks that he would like to purchase in a dollar store: chocolate chip cookies, a Pepsi, gummy bears, and a bag of chips. He waits in line, eager to consume this huge delight. It is his turn, and he hurriedly placed his treats on the counter, waiting anxiously to pay immediately. The cashier replies to him, “The price will be $5.99, sir.” The buyer takes out five one-dollar bills and four quarters. Not an instance did he ever use a penny in this case, which he thought was useless and meaningless. As you can see, the penny has become quite worthless and diminished in purpose. Many citizens would prefer to round up and pay rather than spend time and look in their
Due to most people believing the penny is useless, they are more than happy to give them away to charities who actually need money. For example, a middle school raised over $3,000 in a week by creating a fundraiser which asks for student’s pennies. “if the United States eliminates the penny, charities will suffer because people will pay more at the store and feel they have less to give those in need.” (Source 4) People think pennies are worth little so they have no problem giving their pennies away. Also, charities who receive pennies would lose a large amount of money if pennies were no longer
I have given a detailed speech on why pennies are not worth it, yet, the next day, I declared my love for the shiny coin when I found a stray on the ground. “I’m one cent richer,” I exclaimed. My love for the penny is something I have in common with many Americans. The penny-lovers might be thinking, "We can't get rid of the penny! We're Americans. See, there's Honest Abe Lincoln. He deserves his place here immortalized on this coin." I share this sentiment, but Lincoln still has the five dollar bill and the Lincoln Memorial. On the other hand, the penny is bad for the environment (Mining creates pollution.), dangerous to people and pets (It is 97% zinc.), and essentially useless to the consumer in
What former British Prime Minister, Mrs. Margaret Thatcher, said at the 1979 speech at Lord Mayor’s Banquet is quite true. Pennies are no longer heavenly coins, but merely worthless, earthly currency. Pennies should be eliminated from the U.S. economy due to the fact that they are harmful to the environment, cause the government to spend money, and may be hurting shoppers.
Pennies have been around for hundreds of years, making it hard for us to imagine a life without them. We use them when we go to the store, find them in between the couch cushions, and put them in our piggy bank whenever we are trying to save up for something we want. Pennies are in our everyday lives, and getting rid of them would change so much. The U.S should not get rid of the penny because it will round everything up to a nickel, it will cost even more money to make a nickel, and it would cause difficulties to charities around the world.
In article 1 paragraph 5 of “Penny Anti” They state that “Pennies are costing each of us nearly $50 a year given the average wage per hour”. Though that is true if we get rid of the penny we would have to start rounding to the nearest nickel. Over time, rounding to the nearest nickel could mean a big loss for consumers, which was said in source 4 paragraph 3. In article 3 paragraph 1 they state that “One-cent coins constitute a complete and utter waste of taxpayers' dollars—not to mention a waste of our time and energy”. Though we do pay for them in our taxes at least we are keeping the penny going so it could could be with future generations. Pennies are important, some may not know what they are paying for but if they knew what would happen if we were to abolish the penny they would not argue. So after hearing another pointing view we would still want to save the
Every day we buy things, and to purchase these items, most of us use credit cards or bills. Do we use pennies for virtually any transactions? The answer is no, we don’t. Consequently, the penny is far and away the least useful monetary value we have. Pennies are inefficient and should be cut out of the currency. The rationale behind this conclusion is simple: the price tag of minting a penny is more than one cent. Unfortunately for the penny, two other reasons prove that we require it no longer. The first reason is that not only will the removal of pennies make us more effective, it will drop prices similar to what happened in Australia and New Zealand when they abolished their “pennies”. The second is that we know that we do not need it to conduct our own domestic business. The military has intelligently decided to abolish the penny due to its value to weight ratio and general inefficiency. This decision has only lead to more productivity within the military. All of these factors prove to us that pennies are not as important to us as they may seem.