Is the penny truly something that is necessary? Whether or not the United States penny should cease being minted has been a debated topic among many for years, and the issue is nowhere close to being resolved now than when it first started. Even if some may disagree, the penny should be abolished as a form of currency because of the problems that arise as a result of it. Generally speaking, the use of the penny adds unnecessary hassle to transactions. The use of them when purchasing an item is uncommon and “these days, there’s nothing you can buy for a penny” (O’Neill). Most transactions today are accomplished using dollar bills, or coins such as quarters or dimes, but not pennies. Furthermore, “...fewer prices would end in .99, as in $4.99” …show more content…
The penny costs the government more to produce than the coin is worth. According to Tom Jurkowsky, a Mint spokesman, “the cost to produce the one-cent coin rose to 1.5 cents [during] 2016” (“The Penny Costs More to Make…”). As the price of producing pennies rises, the United States’ government is losing money merely by minting them. Compared to other coins such as dimes and quarters, the penny simply does not seem like it is worth producing. For example, “making a dime costs only 5 cents” (Grant), and producing a quarter costs even less as compared to what it is respectively worth. Yet, “...without pennies, the government would need to turn out more nickels. And nickels cost 10 cents to make” (Grant). This can, however, be changed by lowering the size or changing the material of nickels to make them more similar to dimes, thus lowering the cost of producing them. Later on, the government will look back and therefore realize that not producing the penny will be the correct …show more content…
Simply look at “...countries including Canada and Australia” (Grant). These countries have already ceased production of their respective pennies; in fact “Canada says getting rid of the penny will save $11 million a year” (“Canada Drops…”). Similarly to the United States, these countries’ pennies cost more to produce than they were even worth. Additionally, in Canada, “...the price will be rounded to the nearest nickel” (“Canada Drops…”), so in some cases, people will actually be paying less than they traditionally would on a product. Adversely, however, there are many countries around the world with pennies and there have been no attempts to remove them. These include countries such as Britain and Ireland. On the other hand, further countries have already removed their pennies such as New Zealand. Clearly, the abolition of the penny is the correct
In fact there are many people that oppose abolishing the penny. In source E it states “that 62 percent of people oppose abolishing the penny that has a income less then $25,000 a year.” If the penny was to be abolish then the nickel would be the lowest coin in amount of money. If the nickel was the lowest amount of money there was then that means the purchase prices of items sold would increase. The prices would increase on items sold because the penny would not be in circulation to allow the customer to pay with the correct amount of change. Instead of being able to pay $3.47 for a kids meal at MacDonalds the customer would have to pay $3.50 for the kids meal. With the increasing prices of merchandise sold in stores there could be a budget upset for many families that have to follow a tight budget. Many families have to follow a tight budget to be able to provide for there families. With a tight budget there is no room for the prices of merchandise to increase due to losing the penny. Every penny counts when it comes to having a tight budget and providing for your
We should keep the penny because it has history, in fact it was “the first currency authorized by the United States” (Lewis). The penny no longer has the value that it used to have, but it is still necessary to make purchases as accurate as possible. The penny may seem like a waste of time to many Americans because it takes so long for cashiers to make change, forcing people to wait in line, but it is actually worth the time spent. The penny helps with keeping prices a cent lower, and therefore stimulating the economy. The penny is important to many people who need the money and for whom pennies still have value.
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
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
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.
There is a side to this debate where the penny could win and stay in circulation. To start, the penny has been around for years and years and it has seemed to work for this whole time. This is true, the penny has been around and can be used still in everyday life. The turn side of this, though valid, is with systems changing is is becoming more and more rare for the penny to have a true dire need. One other strong reason to keep the penny alive would be charity. Charity relies on those people who do not necessarily care enough to keep the pennies t drop them off in the donation box. That though, has a simple solution. If the penny were no longer around nickels and dimes would begin to be the change customers and users are no longer wanting. Charity then in result
We already have 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, and 50¢ coins! If we keep pennies it will be a lot to handle with the $1, $2, $5, $10, and $100. Not to mention how we got rid of the $500; $1,000; $5000; and $10,000 in 1969 so we could extort rid of the penny. For items that are like $1.97 we can round up to $2.00 and down to $1.95 so we can round the value. It may make things more expensive, but not too much so the trade is worth it.
One of the main reasons that make people believe we should keep pennies is the fact that it will cause rounding tax. Mark weller claims that “Rounding tax” will cost consumers $600+ million dollars per year. However at the same time keeping the penny is costing businesses $700+ million dollars and they are wasting this money by paying cashiers to count pennies. This has been proven in multiple studies. During one study it had been shown that if the retail clerks and customer spend just 2.5 seconds per transaction counting pennies, those seconds add up to an estimated $700 Million dollars that the business has to pay its workers to count pennies. This is ridiculous! Why should businesses have to pay that much money if people cost their workers time. If you think about it you will see that all of this could be prevented by having the U.S stop producing and distributing
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 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, has argued. “When people start leaving a monetary unit at the cash register for the next customer, the unit is too small to be useful.”
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
The penny has been in America for centuries, it's a sentimental object for Americans everywhere. However many have debated on whether or not it should be eliminated or continue being made. The penny should be preserved because it is apart of American culture, given to charity, and keeps items cheap.
Today, the small cent is once again too expensive to produce, and too irrelevant to bother with. Eliminate the cent and round all cash purchases to the nearest nickel. There will not be a gain or a loss from two more cents on the transaction. There won't be any dwelling over the situation. It is time for the United States of America to grow up and abolish this meaningless Lincoln penny. The penny has been a complete fiasco.
Your average American walking down 2nd street will see a penny on the ground and not bother to stop. You walk into your local store and you always see that one jar that is just asking to collect pennies. This is because people see no use for the American penny. The first American penny was established in 1787 and it was 100 percent copper. In the 1950’s Americans could go down to the local candy shop and buy piece of candy for a cent. Now with one cent Americans can’t buy anything. Americans are finding creative ways to throw out all of their pennies. This is why America should abandon the penny.