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.
Indeed, the loss the U.S. Treasury faces is enough to justify the decision to cancel the minting of the penny. According to David R. Carroll in the Prairie News Register, “A penny currently costs the United States government 2.4 cents to mint” (Para. 1). That is a loss of 1.4 cents per penny, or more than double the value of the penny! Although an extra 1.4 cents may not seem like much, the total loss is approximately $100 million dollars annually. Since the money loss is so great, the eradication of the penny is urgently needed.
Moreover, we would not be the first to do so. In “Penny Anti” on National Review Online, author John Fund relates his own experiences in New Zealand, “Pri...
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...ebate about the penny has a clear solution. This solution would be to remove the penny from the list of currently minted currencies. This is due to the fact that the penny is costing the government and us millions of dollars a year, and since other countries have successfully stopped production of their lowest valued coins, there is no argument for keeping the pennies. We even know that the system works with our own currency due to the favorable outcome that the military had when they outlawed pennies overseas. As Mr. John Fund says, “... A nickel saved is also a nickel earned” (Para. 13). For the various above reasons, it is shown to be preferable to the economy and people as a whole to abolish the penny.
Works Cited
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/294956/penny-anti-john-fund
This letter to the editor is from the Prairie News Register, December 26, 2012.
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
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 affect the United States because the government would not have to devote millions of dollars to pennies. While many other people think that eliminating the pennies would negatively impact 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. To begin, the United States should not eliminate the penny because the coin has impacted our language by giving us more phrases and words.
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.
The penny is so close to worthless that there is a major debate on whether the penny should be kept in circulation. Keeping the penny in circulation would be mostly for those traditionalists who see this coin as history and luck. Many are working very hard to keep that piece of history from meeting its retirement. ALTHOUGH THE PENNY HAS BEEN AROUND THROUGH AN ABUNDANCE OF GENERATIONS; DEPLETING THE NATION OF THIS COIN WOULD BRING LESS HASSLE AND MORE BENEFIT.
"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.
Why should the penny be abolished? Because it is only worth one cent, Or like Mark L...
Imagine a boy walking down the street on a warm summer day. Along his path, he spots a penny, glinting in the summer sunlight. Does he pick it up and keep it or does he just walk past it? Why? The penny, a well known piece of American currency, has long been a part of our country. Some believe it to be old and unnecessary, others believe it should be maintained. There is a lively debate between those who believe in the penny and those who don’t believe in the penny, and there are many pros and cons to each side. I believe the penny is an outdated and irrelevant piece of currency, and I think you should too.
“The currency is gone; it is being sold off very quietly, worldwide, by the oil producing states, by China …” (Watson)
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.
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
First, in order to function properly, countries have to follow rules to avoid deflation or inflation. However, if a country wanted to, they could easily deflate or inflate their economy by breaking said rules. The second major flaw of the gold standard is that there is not enough gold in the world to serve as money anymore because there is too much money in circulation. The process of mining gold is dangerous, expensive and difficult as it is hard to find. The process of printing dollar bills is quick, easy and cheap. Why go through the effort to mine more gold when the fiat system has arguably done just as well? The choice is clear, the gold standard has been replaced by a new, better standard – the fiat