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 …show more content…
countries have gotten rid of their lowest coin and they are all doing fine. These are all reasons showing why we should stop making pennies First off, pennies are just not worth making, using, or even holding onto.
The first piece of evidence that I have gathered comes from Source #1 which states that, “each zinc and copper coin cost 2.41 cents to produce and distribute.” This shows that the US is wasting money in order to keep producing and distributing pennies. Another piece of evidence that shows pennies are not worth keeping states that pennies take up too much space. The reason that this proves we should get rid of pennies is that the space that the pennies are taking up could instead be filled with coins of higher value or even bills of higher value. The last piece of evidence that I will be stating is that they are too “heavy and not cost effective.” The reason I say this is because in source #1 Jim Flaherty even agrees with this opinion and it is true pennies are even heavier than dimes which are worth more. This is one of the many reasons that support my …show more content…
claim Another reason that supports the fact that pennies are useless and should not be made anymore, is that the prices of keeping the penny is extremely large. The first piece of evidence that I have gathered is that it would save businesses money. The reason it would save businesses money is that some businesses pay their workers by the hour, so if said workers are sitting their counting pennies instead of ringing somebody up they are wasting time which then wastes the businesses time and money. The second reason that supports this is that the competitive market prices would go down. The reason I know this is because in the competitive market you would always want to have the best prices, and when they get rid of pennies instead of raising their prices they would most likely lower them in order to obtain the best prices. The last piece of evidence supporting this reason is that the taxes would go down. The way that this is proven is that in many of the sources it states that taxpayers are wasting money on the production and distribution of pennies, for example in source #1, it states that taxpayers lost above 60 million dollars in the year of 2011. These pieces of evidence show that this is only one of the many reasons that prove pennies should stop being produced in the U.S. The last reason that helps prove my claim is the other countries opinions and facts. The first piece of evidence was that canada had gotten rid of their smallest coin. The reason that this helps support my claim is that canada’s economy is doing just fine without their smallest coin so what would be the difference between getting rid of our smallest coin. The second piece of evidence is that when other countries got rid of their smallest coin they had no major drawbacks, and/or penalties by doing so. This helps support my claim by showing the U.S that we could get rid of the smallest coin and it would not have a long-lasting effect on the U.S. The last piece of evidence that shows the U.S should stop producing the penny, states that Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, And britain have all gotten rid of their smallest coin. Even after getting rid of their smallest coin they still had no dire consequences, and their economy is doing fine. These pieces of evidence show that this is only one of the many reasons that prove pennies should stop being produced in the U.S. Although there always has to be two sides to an argument, many others believe that we should keep producing and distributing the penny.
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
pennies. Why should we have to waste our country's money any longer on useless pennies? This is a extremely important topic because the U.S is currently wasting 2.41 cents in order to make every penny which are only worth 1 cent. In many people's opinion Pennies are just a hassle that the U.S should get rid off. For example, there were multiple reasons to get rid of pennies, the first reason that I stated was that the pennies are just not worth keeping around. The second reason that has come to attention during this essay was that getting rid of the pennies would make the prices in the U.S decrease. The last reason that I explained during this argument was other countries opinions. Other people did not think that we should get rid of the penny for many reasons. But before you just go off and make assumptions look over this essay and decide which of the sides is correct.
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.
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
Each month the U.S. mint produces one billion pennies a month. It would be better off to abolish the invaluable penny than to waste employees’ time in the government producing the little annoyances. Source C states how these 10 million shiny new useless items are a waste of time to the government workers. The employees could easily be more valuable if they were tracking counterfeiters. In addition, although the penny is a meaningful emblem of our president, Abraham Lincoln, we will still see his honorable face on the valuable five dollar bill. (Source G) The penny has lost its value as
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
The debate of eliminating pennies or maintaining pennies is a current focus in the United States. Many people think that eliminating the penny would positively influence the United States because the government would not have to devote millions of dollars for pennies. While many other people think that eliminating the pennies would negatively influence the United States because of the rounding tax that would be introduced after the pennies are eliminated. I think that we should continue to keep on manufacturing the pennies because the penny shows how it impacted the English language, it can also help causes that can save lives, and pennies can keep the government from creating the rounding tax which can cost consumers millions of additional dollars.
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.
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.
"As of 2014, the cost of making a penny was estimated at 1.7¢. So yeah, it almost costs two pennies just to make one penny- which makes no sense (pun intended)". Over time, many people have called for the U.S. to stop making pennies. Three reasons why are, we have a lot of coins and bills, not many people carry around cash, and making pennies can waste time, money, and minerals. That is why I believe the U.S. should stop making the penny.
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
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.
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
Despite the world being full of diverse people with varying accomplishments and skill sets, people oftentimes assume the qualities and traits of an individual based purely on the stereotypes set forth by society. Although these stereotypes are unavoidable, an individual can be liberated, empowered and ultimately overcome these stereotypes by obtaining an advanced education.
Time is wasted, by all parties involved, in each transaction when cash, and more specifically pennies, are used. In an excerpt from a New York Times article, writer William Safire states, “They cost more in employee-hours—to wait for buyers to fish them out, then to count, pack up and take them to the bank —than it would cost to toss them out.” Getting rid of the penny would save time for not only the customers, but also for the employees and employers. If customers no longer use pennies, the transactions will go faster, allowing more transactions to take place in a given period of time. No longer using pennies can not only save time, but it can also save money. MIT graduate Jeff Gore created an equation to express the amount of money that is lost because of the copper coins, and he concluded that “‘If each person’s time is worth $15/hour then we arrive at the conclusion that each person is losing $60 per year, at a cost to the nation of over $15 billion per year….’” Gore’s equation shows how inefficient the use of the penny is, and further develops the thought that it should be abolished. The penny simply costs more money to use than it is even worth. The current lowest denomination coin has been easily proven to be a waste of time and money, and should no longer be used in the U.S. money
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