The one cent coin of the United States of America, or the penny, has been debated to be discontinued or not. Barack Obama, the former president of the United States, said that the penny is a symbol of government waste. The penny should be abolished because it is harmful to the environment during production, wastes the government’s money, and is of no use in any useful machines in our current day. The penny hurts the environment. The penny contains about 97% zinc, and only 2.5% copper. In zinc ore, only 3% to 11% is actually zinc, according to moneycrashers.com, and the rest can contain toxic metals. These toxic metals could harm plants, animals, and humans. This could also contaminate water and soil to the point where it is very dangerous to the environment. According to designlife-cycle.com, a website created by college students, on the stage of transporting pennies to banks alone, releases 1.5 metric tons of carbon dioxide in the air each year, just for a penny that is worth super little. When it comes to it, …show more content…
According to thespruce.com, with an updated article, to make a penny, it costs 1.66 cents. That is 0.66 cents more than it is actually worth. Because the U.S government makes around 4 billion pennies, according to CGP Grey, it all adds up to $6,640,000,000 wasted on the production of pennies. This is way too much money wasted on a useless coin that provides no benefit to the economy and could be used on so many other useful things. When you think about where our taxes are going, you probably wouldn’t think about a piece of zinc that is worthless. If the penny gets abolished, our taxes would go to actually useful things. Also, in the future, when coppers price gets risen, the 5% of copper that is in a penny will make the price rise a lot. So the number earlier that is wasted each year could get larger in the future. If we continue the production of pennies, the U.S economy will suffer
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.
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 became more dead than alive, so people began to melt and sell. The death of the penny would have ended there but with the government realizing that they weren't worth minting and happy that its people were removing they became circulation which according to google means that “movement to and from or around something, especially that of fluid in a closed system.” So they made the melting of U.S. coins illegal and continued making 4 billion pennies each year. The pennies instead did the exact opposite by being a literal dead weight on everyone's cash.
Yes, numerous amount of people does acknowledge that fact, but the government can also propose that pennies are to use inexpensive metal, like steel, which makes the entire coin industry save money and have the cost of coins to be cheaper to make. Additionally, think about the amount of people that would be fired if the penny industry were to be eliminated. This might the only job that can support their family. Instead of trying to eliminate the pennies which provide a great use for US citizens it is time to ask the government why they would spend hundreds of dollars uselessly for studies, such as a study on why chimpanzees throw their
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
Campaign finance refers to all funds raised to help increase candidates, political parties, or policy attempts and public votes. When it comes to political parties, generous organizations, and political action groups in the United States are used to collect money toward keep campaigns alive. Campaign finance always has problems when it comes to these involvements. These involvements include donating to candidate, parties and other political organization. Matthew J. Streb stated “instead of placing further restrictions on campaign donations to candidates, parties, and other political organizations, we should consider eliminating contribution restrictions entirely (Rethinking American Electoral Democracy)”. In other words, instead of allowing
Finally, making pennies is a waste of time, money, and minerals. The minerals in pennies are copper and nickel. Over time, copper has gotten more rare and nickel is in other coins, so let's use it for them! You may deem that these are not strong, but if you support this it could help us in the future when we need the minerals. In the time that it takes to make pennies we could be making other coins or bills. Like Denver Nicks said it takes 1.7¢ to make a penny, two pennies for one! That is wacky, those can oomph to better uses. We can endure those minerals and use them for other things in the
As of today America’s national debt is 18 trillion dollars and approximately 5 trillion of that is held by foreign countries including China and Japan. In the last few years we seem to hear more about balancing the country’s budget and politicians raising the debt ceiling so we can pay on this debt. How have we gotten into such an overwhelming and complicated problem with our nation’s money? Ironically the same can be said for our individual household debt as well as making the same mistakes and trying to find creative ways to be accountable to our financial responsibilities. Teaching the basics of personal finance n our schools can culturally change our financial practices, leading to a more financially literate public and a stronger, more stable, America. If the younger generations can become more financially savvy, then there is an opportunity for our nation as a whole to become less dependent on debt to survive.
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.
There is definitely no purpose and meaning in continuing the creation of these worthless objects. All they do to the United States is cause trouble, and they are clearly a bothersome to uphold them in our possession since they barely contain any value. Our economy would be fit with just dimes, quarters, and nickels as our coins. Abraham Lincoln, who was the president represented in this penny, would disapprove having his reputation and honor shown in a futile currency. The government needs to stop producing pennies. They create a loss of money rather than a profit; therefore, these copper cents need to be gone from our economy. What other choice is available? What can these pennies do in order to redeem their glory? It is nearly impossible to convince residents to use pennies once again. The penny has lost its value, and their dignity has become faint to us. It is time to eliminate pennies–for
Under a law called the common law doctrine of covertures, men gained control of their wives property and money. Then they say that if a man was poor and chose to send his children to a poorhouse, their mother couldn't do anything about it. If the woman were to divorce their husbands, he kept both the property and children. The required educational preparation for the practice of medicine increased. This kept married women who were young and had a lot of children from having a professional career. The most outrageous of all is, if a woman shot and killed her husband, they would be accused of homicide. But if a man shot and killed his wife, he could be said as having a "passion shooting". On August 26, 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was ratified in
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.
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.