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 …show more content…
bottom of the cupholder, it is not being used. The penny serves as a waste of space and an annoying clunk in your pocket. The penny is dissipating because of the continuous economic changes in America.
Throughout the past decade, costs of everything have skyrocketed. According to Source C, America used to have “five and dime stores;” now its a dollar store. In addition, no one can buy anything with just a penny anymore. The source also made a fair observation that these worthless zinc disks are, “behind chair cushions or at the back of sock drawers next to your old tin-foil ball. Quarters and dimes circulated; pennies disappear because they are literally more trouble than they are worth.” According to a New York Times article, “it takes nearly a dime today to buy what a penny bought back in 1950.” The penny is still stuck in the 1950s while America just keeps moving on. As stated by Mark Lewis in his concept of establishing a bill, “the bill would not ban pennies, but merely discourage their use by establishing a system under which cash transactions would be rounded up or down.” (Source A) This motive will help keep the America exceed and …show more content…
progress. America has made many technological and economical advancements throughout the past decade. America has invented computers, laptops, smartphones, cellular data plans, drones, autopilot cars, icloud, and many more brilliant inventions. But some of the most useful inventions are credit cards, debit, cards, venmo, and bitcoin. These practical inventions have basically eliminated the need to carry money or loose change in your pocket. “The penny has been shoved out of the economic picture by charge cards.” (Source B) Using cash and coins is pretty much useless. In addition, you receive a statement about how much you spent, what you spent it on, where you spent it, and your current balance. Could you accomplish that with cash and coins? It also takes more time to sit there and count exact change. Why count the exact change to return when you can just round it up to the nearest dollar or nickle? With a credit card or venmo, all it takes is a swipe or insert and it is done. In today’s world, we all live faster lives.
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
invention. Overall, the use of the penny is of little worth today. Whether the penny is rolling around in your pocket or resting at the bottom of the cupholder, it is not being used. The penny serves as a waste of space and an annoying clunk in your pocket. With the rise of credit cards and cryptocurrency, even paper money will soon be outdated. By beginning to abolish useless money such as pennies, we can be one step closer to the future and full economic success. The penny belongs in your coin collection, instead of your pocket. It needs to be eliminated because it holds America back from progressing and advancing into the future of technology.
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.
In 2001, United Sates Representative Jim Kolbe proposed a legislation to Congress to dispose the penny coin from the currency of America because of its small impact. Although his legislation failed, most people currently argue about the penny’s existence today. Even though the penny stood as a mark of history, it is useless and should be eliminated from America’s currency.
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
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.
Being the first currency in the United States, dating back to 1787, the penny has been the longest serving currency - thanks to Abe Lincoln. In recent times, the penny has become a useless piece of material due to how costly everything is, the time consumed in making change, and the true objective to facilitate transactions. This is why the penny should be abolished from our society.
The production of a penny costs about two cents each and the value of the penny is gradually decreasing throughout the years, however, penny production should not stop in the United States. Without the penny, all prices would be rounded up to nickel prices. Prices tend to be rounded up considering most prices end in a nine. Therefore, the tax buildup that Americans would pay throughout the next few decades would increase dramatically. The deletion of the penny from our current society will also force Americans to rely more heavily on nickels, which will end up taxing the government more money in the end. Though some believe that the penny should no longer be manufactured, there are a plethora of reasons why the penny is an essential part of the United States’ currency system.
For instance, in the article “Abolish the Penny (Source 3)”, it clearly states, “Where do they go? Two-thirds of them immediately drop out of circulation, into piggy banks or –as The Time’s John Tierney noted five years ago –behind chair cushions or at the back of sock drawers next to your old tin-foil ball.” Adding on, many people view the penny as a useless currency, and they even leave it in hidden places around their own home. The reason why pennies are sometimes located in piggy banks or at the back of sock drawers is that citizens see no purpose in obtaining them. In other words, it seems as if the penny has lost its fame and glory ever since other forms of currency have been established, such as quarters, dimes, and dollar bills. As explained by William Safire, quarters and dimes seem to circulate more often than pennies, and pennies “disappear” due to their worthless value and troubles. Specifically, the reign of quarters and dimes has overtaken the significance of pennies, and as time passes by, the term “penny” might not even be mentioned anywhere around the United States. In addition, more people nowadays tend to use quarters and dimes for due change, leaving the penny to become less essential for our needs. As stated in Source 3, the British and French have already abandoned their low-value coins approximately 30 years ago. This demonstrates the probable
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
Not everyone agrees that the penny should be totally eliminated. No matter what your stance the penny debate is real and the United States has to make a decision one way or another.My stance is no, we don’t need the penny anymore. You can’t buy anything with it like you can with a courter. Pennies aren’t needed the price might be 0.99 cents but we have tax so it’s rounded up.I know some people collect them because they have been around forever but, they are not needed. I feel there shouldn’t because we lose money making it, it would be easier to round up or down and it takes a lot of time to count.
The penny, dating back to 1787, is one of the first currencies authorized by the US (Source B). This small piece of currency has been a big part of society and cash, but is now considered worthless and wasteful by many people. Although people may think this, the penny still has important uses. The penny still holds important value and should not be eliminated. First of all, many people oppose the abolition of the penny.
“It takes nearly a dime today to buy what a penny bought back in 1950. Despite this, the U.S. Mint keeps churning out a billion pennies a month” (Safire, 2006). The U.S. Mint continues to make a coin that is costing them more to make than it is worth. Although people may be attached to the history of having a penny as part of the monetary system, it is more important to keep up with relevant costs. Even though the penny is a historical representation of our country, it would save time and money if eliminated from the U.S. monetary system.
One reason is that banks say that if they do get rid of the penny, they wouldn’t get rid of them electronically. Meaning, in your bank account, you would still have pennies in your balance, but you wouldn’t be able to get any of them from the bank. Furthermore, most every store will round up their prices. So if an item is $15.96, practically every store would make the price $16.00. Rounding up prices would cost us Americans $600 million dollars in total(Sommers). Finally, stock market would take a big hit because most stocks are penny stocks. Stocks throughout the country Would lose hundreds of millions of dollars. The final reason we should keep the penny is the
Pennies that were once created to hold a value of one cent are today more trouble than they are worth and should be abolished for numerous reasons. “Can nobody rid America of this cooper-coated scourge?” (Source A). The penny that “Once, it had swagger” (Source A), is slowly declining in popularity over the years as individuals grow less fond of them.
Many Americans assume that because a penny’s worth is minuscule, it’s importance in this country is too. On the contrary, this tiny, copper coin is a symbol of America and has been since its creation in 1787 (Source B). Now, after two centuries of the penny’s existence, a bill has been introduced by Jim Kolbe to rid America of this form of currency (Source A). The controversy over this idea has kept Kolbe’s bill from being passed for almost a year (Source A). America is due for an agreement to be made on this dispute. This icon of America should not be abolished due to its historical meaning, economic benefits, and American’s great desire to keep this coin.