Has the venerable $.01 piece outlived its usefulness? Check out the website for some of the arguments in favor of eliminating the penny. What do you think? Also check out this guys hilarious rant against the penny.
Sunday, October 02, 2011
Is it time to Retire the Penny?
Has the venerable $.01 piece outlived its usefulness? Check out the website for some of the arguments in favor of eliminating the penny. What do you think? Also check out this guys hilarious rant against the penny.
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41 comments:
I know I hate pennies...but I think eliminating them could be more expensive than just keeping them around
Has people are pointing out pennies cost more to produce than what it is worth and because of that I think it is reasonable to retire the penny. When do we really use pennies, there barely anything that demand the use of pennies. If retiring the penny benefits them then they should retire it and create more jobs.
The penny is now worth less than what it costs to make and leads to an increase in time consumed in making purchases. But eliminating the penny altogether is a little over board, without pennies costs will have to either go up or down in 5 cent increments, and how is one supposed to receive or give correct change without pennies? They may be a hassle but they still serve a purpose seeing as they are the smallest increment of change. Carrying around a load of pennies does get heavy, but paying 4 cents extra just because you cant get change is far more annoying.
I think having the penny is worthwhile due to the impact it has on our currency system. It is a annoying task of keeping pennies where a person goes so I say it will be better that the pennies be made into another handy value or a dollar looking bill.
Due to the penny being in our currency system for so long, I believe it is pointless to get rid of it. Yes it may be worth almost nothing in today's society but getting rid of the penny leads to a conflict will dealing with change. I agree with Kathleen when she says there would be no way to give a customer, etc. exact change without one cent. Pennies have been the lowest currency for a while now and have always been used no matter how annoying they may be when you search for them in your wallet.
Madelyn Hogue, Period 4
The fact that the actual making of a penny itself costs 1.7 cents is completely ineffective. More money and time is invested in producing this small unit of currency. If the penny is eliminated, however, costs will be forced to either round up or down to the nearest fivve cents, and there's no telling which way it would go. Nickels would, therefore, increase in circulation and use, before we know it, the nickel may be the new penny. We may have to face the possibility of the lowest unit of currency always posing this problem.
Although pennies are a hassle to carry around, they help those who are cash bound. Without pennies, people cannot produce $10.03 without breaking another coin or bill. Also, nobody would get exact change back. Prices will probably rise and all just because people find one cent a problem. It just seems that there are way to many problems from one action.
Pennies are worth less than nothing these days and kind of annoying to see people with pennies jar and bottles. The productions of pennies is making it more impossible to get rid of the pennies. Addition to that if you don't have exact change for $12.03 pennies are worth more to you than a nickel or dime.
Steve Jobs Have Died, Mr.pye. make sure its one of the current event tomorrow.
I think if pennies are costing us more to make it than what they are worth, they should be retired...it's not only an economic issue, but also a convenience issue...
Just gotta love how store always sell stuff at like $2.99, and if you pay cash, you always get the one little penny...in most cases, they get left in the pockets, and when it comes to laundry time, you always hear these stupid pennies banging around in the machine...and with most transactions going through credit or debit cards nowadays anyway...i don't see the point of keeping them
-Kevin ma, period 4
Pennies are indeed pretty useless, usually people just collect a jar of them in hopes of coinstar turning those pennies into dollars. However, if we take out the penny wouldn't the prices of products now have to be regulated? Instead your meal being 9.13, as some meals are today, prices around the world would have to be changed to get every item on the market with a price that is a multiple of 5. Also, I agree with the sentimental value of the penny. Its Abraham Lincoln, a favorite president by MANY people and taking out the penny now without further research (not just the rantings of a vlog shirt salesman), would be premature. What are the true pros and cons of eliminating the penny and what are the long term effects. Personally I'm not in favor of retiring the penny, because despite what many people assume, I use pennies everyday in cases when I give exact change or in cases when I dont want to break a whole new dollar.
I think Its time to retire the pennies. First of all they cost more to make than itself. Second no one like pennies, even some store doesn't take pennies. Also, the minimum amount you could put in a vending machine now days are around 25 cents. The only benefit I see from the pennies are to check if you need to replace your tire (penny Check), paperweight, and lotto scratch off.
I would retire the penny based on the fact that it is worth less than its production costs. However, I don't see any particular urgency in eliminating the penny. Sure they're annoying and rather useless, but I don't see them causing any real harm either.
As the guy in the video said, I too agree that pennies are pretty much worthless. We never use pennies for any kind of purchase; it's the last thing we think about. Although it might be kind of disheartening to complete let go of the penny, to do so might help save billions of dollars. This money saved can be used to sustain the nation in multiple different ways. I wholeheartedly support this claim, for it is when we give up something, that we truly attain a greater profit.
It costs 1.7 cents to make a penny, thus, costing us 70 million dollars a year to subsidize the costs. The opportunity cost is 1 billion dollars because the time we spend costs that much. We would be stupid if we were spending more money to waste more money, money that could be used to create new jobs and incite some econonomic growth. Eliminating the penny is the easiest way to do it, so we should take adavantage of it. As we learned earlier, when marginal costs are greater than marginal benefits, our economy is affected negatively, another reason for eliminating the penny. However, I will say that eliminating the penny would cause problems in terms of price regulation, as prices (and thus, taxes) would need to be based on the nickel. In this sense, it may not be wise to retire the penny because the costs to compensate for these changes might not be worth it.
The hassle to produce pennies is greater than their benefit, thus pennies need to go. Despite being a “sentimentalist” nation I think that people need to put their emotions aside and look at the benefits created by eliminating pennies. Eliminating the penny would not lead o higher prices, hurt charitable cost, or hurt the prophet of the Treasury, as myth suggests. Instead, the billions of dollars saved could be allocated for better reasons than for the sound mind of people who “grew up” with pennies. Australia and New Zealand have withdrawn their one-cent piece without any problems. America needs to take the hint and start thinking logically too.
I agree with the guy in the video. But there are probably logistics behind the production of pennies that benefit SOMETHING. If they were as pointless as what he says, than we wouldn't have them still. But in a decade or so, the penny will be dead. Already, prices are rounded to the whole dollar on restaurant menus and other things. But taxes rely on pennies, I suppose; that's why they're still around.
As many others have said, as useless as the penny is, getting rid of it all together would probably end up costing us more money in the long run. All the employees that work at the zinc plant that provide us with pennies would lose their jobs, which would cause them to have no income, which means unemployment, which means the government is the one providing the unemployment check. I also agree with Kathleen about having to pay 4 extra cents on a product simply because we wouldn't have pennies anymore. Given that they should've been rid "almost 50 years ago", there's clearly still SOME sort of purpose for them today, or else we wouldn't be wasting the money to produce them.
Caitlin Donovan, period 7
After reading the arguments and watching the video, I agree that the penny is pretty worthless. The production of making a penny costs more than its actual value, as billions of pennies are created results in millions of dollars wasted. Though the production of pennies will not stop immediately, it would take some decades before they completely stop.
Most people would agree to retire the penny. This would create a major change in our economy. This would also change the way of how people start to use their money. I also agree with retiring the penny, but it should be gradually reduced from our currency system. Actually when the guy in the video talked about opportunity cost he meant that, why would we waste our time making worthless pennies, when we could use it to make something worthwhile.
Aside from the fact that the penny's production cost is more than the worth of the actual penny, I see no urgent reason for the penny to be taken out of circulation. Plus,if the penny were taken out of circulation, then everything would be rounded up or down to the nearest 5 cents, which would probably end up upsetting another group of people. Furthermore, if you're someone who doesn't like carrying a pound of pennies around on a daily basis, putting loose change in a jar can add up to some serious cash within a few months.
Because the penny costs more to produce than it's worth, too much money is going to waste. The problem with people is that they're afraid of change (no pun intended). The process of getting rid of the penny needs to be gradual so the price does not flux as much. Plus, more and more purchases are being done electronically or through credit cards, so the usefulness of change and particularly the penny is dwindling. Obviously, the saved money can be used for helping the nation in a multitude of ways such as funding aid organizations and business. If anything, the four extra cents paid will stimulate the economy further.
Haris Vakil period 7
I've always found pennies annoying, but eliminating them completely will lead to other problems-- such as with taxation. I think a possible solution is rounding prices to the nearest nickel-- even after taxes. As time goes on we must adapt accordingly. The penny had a purpose in the past but is now unnecessary. People will slowly accept this and get to used to it.
After reading the article and watching the video I also believe that the pennies should retire. One reason is that, the pennies cost more to produce than what it is really worth. Instead of producing the pennies, our country should use the extra money for more helpful and beneficial things like aiding the poor and the hungry.
I think the penny has some use to it when it comes to getting exact change. I think it will create an issue when it comes to buying stuff because what if you do need that extra penny. Look at the debit card for example. If my debit card says $51.49 and I want to buy some thing that is, with tax, $51.50 its gonna reject the card. I also think retiring the penny and going through the process of getting rid of it will just waste more money. We should keep it.
I personally think that the penny needs to be retired. Yes it is a national icon, but it costs more to produce the penny then it is worth for value. Most pennies are not actually used in transactions but end up in washing machines and the trash. The penny is essentially worthless.
Brooke Follett period 4
The penny is a seemingly pointless and worthless part of the monetary system. However, if the penny system was discontinued, there could be a chance that prices would potentially increase. The making of the penny is not as cheap as the worth of it. Therefore, if getting rid of the penny will benefit the economy, it should be done.
If the facts in the "I hate pennies" video are true, then there should be little debate on the subject of eliminating the penny. It should be eliminated if it costs more to produce than it is actually worth. I know that I personally never use pennies. However, there are probably problems with eliminating the penny from the commerce market that the speaker in the video failed to mention. Overall, it seems to be a good idea for the economy to get rid of pennies.
No, it is definitely not the right time to retire the penny. Retiring the minting of pennies would leave the zinc industry without a major, reliable purpose. It would be the foolish to drive an entire job-providing industry to close its doors in the midst of high unemployment rates. Also, the fact that inflation is the main reason that pennies cost more to mint than they're actually worth implies that, as soon as the inflation subsides, pennies will be useful again. In either case, the penny should not be retired from circulation just yet.
Retiring the penny seems like a good idea, because it is annoying to carry around most of the time and the cost to produce the penny is worth more than the actual value. At the restaurant/movie theater I work at, the servers don't even give out exact change to a customer. We usually just round up and give them a few cents more than to hunt for a silly penny.
Honestly, I want to keep pennies. How else could you get exact change from something that cost $1.86? If you pay a $1.90, then you'd get 4 cents back in pennies. If not for the penny, every consumer would lose money because the exact change could not possibly be returned. You'd be surprised at how much change people collect and then turn in. Without the penny potentially hundreds, thousands, and maybe millions would be lost by the consumers every year just because he couldnt get exact change.
Kamal McMillan, Period 4
I think the penny should be kept in circulation. Many people may think the penny is a useless way of paying, but without the penny exact change would not be possible. Buyers would love vast amounts of money because they would have to pay over the actual price, and receive nothing in return. Regardless of how annoying the penny can be on a day to day basis, there is a great need for it in our economy.
In my opinion, the penny is pretty worthless. Generally, it costs more to make the pennies and really, the only thing they are good for is flipping coins and giving exact change. So what if you couldn't get the four or so cents that were supposed to be given in change? I'm not fretting over the 9 cents that I missed out on. Lastly, eliminating the penny would actually save us some money that we could be using for something else, like taking over the world.
When you walk into a store, the first thing you notice is ".99". Every store has at least one board that has 99 cents on it. The change needs to be paid in a penny.Moreover,how would we get the change for 23 cents? Therefore, penny should not retire. Sure, it cost 1.7 cents to make a penny, which makes it 70 million dollars yearly. However,it will take us years to change the system of 99 cents and other price regulations. Penny might be worthless and people might not even notice a penny on the floor. But, it will cost us to retire a penny. Then, the question of opportunity cost comes up. So, lets say penny retires and even nickel retires like the person in the video says. So, we pay everything with a dime and quarter. However, if we have to pay 23 cents, do we pay 20 cents or 25 cents or do we change the whole system,so everything we buy and sell comes out to a perfect price.
This actually brings up something that has been bothering me for quite some time. Pennies don't bother me at all, and I still consider them to be a usable form of currency. But say I wanted to pay for my lunch at the school cafeteria. If I give the lunch lady a dollar and 5-10 pennies, the lunch lady working the cashier almost always complains. Pennies are still a valid form of currency, and trying to get rid of them would not only be expensive, but also be tedious.
I don't like pennies either, but it might take a lot more work if we do get rid of them. We'd have to consider all of the price changing we'd have to do once the penny is eliminated. Imagine changing all the prices that end with 9, 8, 7, 6, 4, 3, 2, and 1 cents. All of these would probably need to be rounded to the next dollar. Having to do all the adjustments after getting rid of the penny might even be just as annoying or possibly even more annoying as having the penny right now.
Getting rid of pennies would not be a good idea because there would be no way to give exact change. It sometimes is annoying to keep track of pennies, but things would simply cost more. I think it would be more expensive to get rid of the penny than to let it stay.
I know people hate pennies and I know they cost more than what they are worth. But lets be honest to take away the penny it would make the process of giving back change almost impossible. If something cost you 7.58 and you paid 7.60 you would be upset because you just lost money. Yes, to some pennies maybe worthless but if your a greedy person who wants their exact change then I don't think it's smart to get rid of the penny.
Let's retire the penny and the nickel. Why not? The U.S. could make prices 10x as much and produce 10x as much currency, excluding the penny and nickel. You wouldn't need any more loose pennies and nickels in the middle section of your car because since everything costs 10x as much, you'd only need to have to have dimes (and half-dollars). Then again my solution would pose MANY other problems, such as rendering the quarter useless as well. Until the US can find a suitable solution, I guess we're just stuck with those dumb little coins.
Alex Collins
4th period
I would be in favor of retiring the penny. Not because it costs $10 billion per year because people are standing in line searching for it, but because it costs more to make a penny than it is worth. If you took out the penny, people would just spend the 2.4 hours a year searching for nickles instead, so thus there is no improvement there. However because the penny costs more to make than its market value, it should be retired.
Since pennies cost more time and money for people, it is reasonable to say that it's okay to eliminate it. What I'd the point of keeping something that makes us lose money? Especially considering the economic crisis we're in right now? Well, it I'd also true that a penny I'd worth so little that people do not even bother to pick it up off the ground. But the penny is also useful when you think about it. We make our change in the grocery store with pennies. Is something cost 86 cents we're going to need that one penny. So as long as we don not know the outcome of this change, it is possibly better to avoid it
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