Penny Synthesis Essay

842 Words2 Pages

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…

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…

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

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