In 2001 United States Representative Jim Kolbe introduced legislation to Congress to eliminate the penny coin in most transactions. Although this legislation failed, there are still consistent calls to eliminate the penny as the smallest-denomination United States coin. Our nation is founded on passed traditions. Any American can look basically in any place to understand why America has thrived for centuries. Every tradition, sculpture, monument, or artifact gives Americans history about what has occured. The country struggles to destroy any of these long kept traditions. Although some traditions are completely relevant, the use of the penny is of little worth today. Whether the penny is rolling around in your pocket or resting at the …show more content…
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 …show more content…
We strive on making everything more efficient. As stated by a www.globe.com article, “The National Association of Convenience Stores and Walgreens drug store chain estimated that handling pennies adds 2 to 2.5 seconds to each cash transaction (remember that we are including the occasional customer who spends 30 seconds looking for the penny in his pocket)” (Source B) That is a lot of unneeded time. When you get the penny back does it mean anything to you? It was also estimated that if you add those 2.5 seconds, it equates to 4 hours per year handling pennies. In keeping with the thrive and efficiency to move along in America, you can be using those 4 hours for something much more productive. As another example, say you are walking down the street and you see a penny on the ground, will you stop and pick it up? You most likely will not pick it up because it has no value. Now what if it was a nickel, or a quarter? Will you pick it up? Most people will definitely pick it up. A penny is just a waste of time. Finding a penny at the bottom of your pocket or in your bag drives cashiers crazy. There would be no need for this wasted time if we abolished the penny. The penny is stopping every great American from pursuing the next biggest breakthrough or
They must be eliminated, but you might think. Wont prices go up and charities lose money? No. new zealand , finland, and the netherlands stopped using the one cent or the one cent euro and noticed no change in cost instead they round to the nearest five cent. Anyways the US has already gone through this process without trouble like the half cent it was eliminated in 1857 because it was too little worth. Another thing is that everyone loves lincoln so they might think that his monument might be taken away but taking away the penny won't take away his memory we will still have him on our five dollar bill which won't go away. Yes you might think it is unpatriotic or disrespectful to take away lincoln but the us military is not using pennies because they have already realized that pennies are useless and not needed so they round to the nearest five cent. So basically pennies just aren't worth making, they waste people's time and they don't even work as money like they are supposed to, and because of inflammation lose more value every year making them making everything
To begin, United States should not eliminate the penny because the coin has impacted our language by giving us more phrases and words. According to source #4, it states, “The one-cent has influenced our language, giving us a number of idioms, such as ‘a penny for your thoughts’ (a way to ask what someone is thinking) and ‘not one red cent’ (meaning no money at all).” This is significant because it shows that the penny has affected the English language
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
The production of a penny costs about two cents each and the value of the penny is gradually decreasing throughout the years, however, penny production should not stop in the United States. Without the penny, all prices would be rounded up to nickel prices. Prices tend to be rounded up considering most prices end in a nine. Therefore, the tax buildup that Americans would pay throughout the next few decades would increase dramatically. The deletion of the penny from our current society will also force Americans to rely more heavily on nickels, which will end up taxing the government more money in the end. Though some believe that the penny should no longer be manufactured, there are a plethora of reasons why the penny is an essential part of the United States’ currency system.
In America’s modern day economy, the penny is very useless and irrelevant in our society today. As source C states, “The time has come to abolish the outdated, almost worthless, bothersome, and wasteful penny.” There is not one item that can be purchased with a penny anymore (Source C). As source C states, “it takes nearly a dime to buy what a penny bought back in 1950.” Stores such as the Dollar Store prove how the cheapest items you can purchase are with only a dollar, not a cent. Pennies are shoved out of the economic picture by credit cards and because of the modern-day technology, there are even self-service machines that help convert coins into paper money (Source B). Furthermore, pennies are easily tossed into piggy banks or appear behind chair cushions. It is not used the same way as it was before.
The worth and value of the penny has dropped significantly, preventing the coin to serve its purpose. In the article “Penny Anti,” numerous experts concluded that the penny is of no importance anymore. “The purpose of the monetary system is to facilitate exchange, but the penny no longer serves that purpose.” Harvard professor N. Gregory Mankiw, a former chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, disclosed. It has become common practice to leave the one-cent unit at the register as it is worth so little. “When people start leaving a monetary unit at the cash register… the unit is too small to be useful.” As stated in “The Cost of the Penny,” pennies are a waste of time and effort. The Department of Defense ceased to ship pennies out to oversea
Imagine that you are shopping. The person in front of you is just about to finish up, but just as you expect them to pull out a dollar or a credit card, they pull out a small jar full of coins, mostly filled with pennies. You then realize you will be there for a while. That situation is a general shopper’s worst nightmare. The penny is one of the most costly coins for the U.S. Mint, and is generally not needed in usual shopping situations. The penny should stop being minted because they cost more than a penny to distribute and make, they cost money and time to lose, and they don’t affect prices.
Dr. Robert Whaples a professor at Wake Forest disagrees and does not think the economic impact of eliminating pennies will be significant. If the retail clerk and customer spend just 2.5 seconds per transaction counting pennies those seconds add up. Those seconds add up to an estimated $700 million in wages that businesses pay retail clerks to count pennies. Put yourself in their shoes.Would you want to be the one counting all of those pennies everyday? I know I wouldn’t and getting rid of the penny will
“It takes nearly a dime today to buy what a penny bought back in 1950. Despite this, the U.S. Mint keeps churning out a billion pennies a month” (Safire, 2006). The U.S. Mint continues to make a coin that is costing them more to make than it is worth. Although people may be attached to the history of having a penny as part of the monetary system, it is more important to keep up with relevant costs. Even though the penny is a historical representation of our country, it would save time and money if eliminated from the U.S. monetary system.
One reason is that banks say that if they do get rid of the penny, they wouldn’t get rid of them electronically. Meaning, in your bank account, you would still have pennies in your balance, but you wouldn’t be able to get any of them from the bank. Furthermore, most every store will round up their prices. So if an item is $15.96, practically every store would make the price $16.00. Rounding up prices would cost us Americans $600 million dollars in total(Sommers). Finally, stock market would take a big hit because most stocks are penny stocks. Stocks throughout the country Would lose hundreds of millions of dollars. The final reason we should keep the penny is the
Pennies that were once created to hold a value of one cent are today more trouble than they are worth and should be abolished for numerous reasons. “Can nobody rid America of this cooper-coated scourge?” (Source A). The penny that “Once, it had swagger” (Source A), is slowly declining in popularity over the years as individuals grow less fond of them.
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
These hardships do not have to be faced though if the penny stays within America’s currency. In fact, there are only benefits to its continuation. Some would disagree with that, as people like William Safire deem the coin “worthless” (Source C). A penny may only be worth one cent, but when saved with other pennies, it can total to large sums. Edmond Knowles saved about 90 pennies a day for 38 years, which totaled to $13,084.59 (Source B). The saying ‘a penny saved is a penny earned’ is reflected in Knowles and his belief in the value of a
Between 2001 and 2006, there has been an increase of .6 cents for the reproduction of the penny. This increase displays economic problems that may lead to fatal ones. The penny is composed of 2% copper and 98% zinc. These elements are exponentially in demand causing the price of these materials to skyrocket. Many Americans think the penny is putting our country in jeopardy with financial losses. This meaningless coin is losing money for the mint, and should be abolished.
Cost. It is what drives the economic market of the world today. Back in the 1950’s, the penny was used for buying an array of smaller items. Stated in Source 3, “...it takes nearly a dime today to buy what a penny bought back in 1950.” Furthermore, the world is driven by cost. As known, prices increase everywhere - making it impossible to buy anything with just a penny. Moreover, where do all of the pennies disappear to? Penny heaven? “Two-thirds of them immediately drop out of circulation, into piggy banks… behind chair cushions or at the back of sock drawers next to your old tin-foil ball.” additionally stated in Source 3. Since most of the pennies in circulation cannot be found, what is the point in having them? Exactly, there not a valid reason. As stated earlier, it takes about a dime to buy