Everyone knows the penny, the one-cent coin that has influenced American culture throughout the ages, what you may not know is that America’s smallest coin is under attack. As a result of the costly production of pennies, people have been debating over whether the penny should continue to be printed and used. Although some think kicking the penny to the curb is the way to go, the penny should not be done away with because of the cost of inflation, the cost of other coins, and the cost of losing a very valuable asset in our money system.
First of all, the penny should continue to be printed because discontinuation will cause inflation. In the article from the New York Times, Penny Wise, or 2.4 Cents Foolish, the author explains how getting rid of pennies will cause a price inflation. “Retail sales will be rounded up or down. … but retailers in the real world might raise prices more than lower them.” (Sommer) The evidence presented explains that getting rid of the penny will just give greedy business owners an
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excuse to raise prices on their products. You might have a $3.12 item one day and a $3.25 item the next. Moreover, “That could cause a… one time inflation burst,” (Sommer) Which may result in penny value going up, but store prices likely would increase even more. Do you really want even more of your hard-earned money napped just because pennies are ‘not useful anymore’? To continue, pennies price tags should be disregarded because of the price of other coins. The penny is slightly more costly than it’s value, “But why stop at the penny?... Each nickel costs 11.18 cents to produce and distribute,” (Sommer) If the penny is demolished, more than likely the nickel will be targeted next. Its price is much more than the pennies price, so it’s probable to happen. If the nickel is done away with a nearly identical inflation will be, once again, at stores, but the inflation will be greater. Sommer quotes Mr. Velde saying “The whole situation is ridiculous,” and he is right. Most tax is only a few cents per item, what will happen to tax if there are no small coins to pay it? Most likely the tax will be rounded up. The situation proposes too many problems along with demolishing the penny, and it’s not even the most costly coin. Furthermore, many people may disregard “the power of the penny” (Waterhouse) because of its small value.
This argument is flawed because the penny may seem small, but they can add up over time. Take a thousand pennies for example, alone each of them are only worth one cent, but together they make ten dollars. Pennies have value when they are put together. In the newspaper article Give a Penny - Save the Day! students raised over $3000 in a week with a penny drive. The author quotes a student, Michael Cooper, saying, “If you asked for my quarters, I would have said ‘no’... Pennies don’t really matter much, so I was happy to give them to someone who could use them.” (Waterhouse) This shows that people don’t mind donating pennies because their value is so small, so a lot of people donated them. All of the previously tiny coins added up to raise a lot of money for a good cause. This would all not be possible without “the power of the penny.”
(Waterhouse) In conclusion, the penny is still important due to the cost of inflation, due to the cost of inflation, the cost of other coins, and the cost of losing “the power of the penny.” (Waterhouse) The penny has shaped our society for hundreds of years losing the penny would mean losing the value and it has to make a change in our world. Which would mean losing a part of our world that is very valuable.
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.
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
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.
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
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, giving the language more idioms to use. It is often said that pennies should not be manufactured anymore due to their excessive cost of manufacturing and distribution. Yes, numerous people do 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 has the cost of coins to be cheaper to make.
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 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.
Millions of Americans work full-time, day in and day out, making near and sometimes just minimum wage. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them in part by the welfare claim, which promises that any job equals a better life. Barbara wondered how anyone can survive, let alone prosper, on $6-$7 an hour. Barbara moved from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, working in the cheapest lodgings available and accepting work as a waitress, hotel maid, house cleaner, nursing home aide, and Wal-Mart salesperson. She soon realizes that even the lowliest occupations require exhausting mental and physical efforts and in most cases more than one job was needed to make ends meet. Nickel and Dimed reveals low-wage America in all of its glory, consisting of
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
Many of Americans view the every day penny as only one cent that carries only little to no value, which is why they wind-up stashed away at the back of drawers. What most people don’t have a clue is the value it once held back in the days where a can of coke was about one cent. Our very own citizens who once fought battles and came home scarred knew that the penny wasn’t just one cent, it was the blood shed, their fallen brothers, and the never ending tears that symbolized one single Lincoln. Pennies are worth more than their currency, they are the history of our home and the beginning of where we stand today.
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.
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 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