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.
The second video is from a guy who loves pennies. Which side are you on?
55 comments:
I hope that second guy was trolling. And yes the penny should be eliminated. The only reason it's around anymore is because people wish to preserve it as if it was a national treasure that anyone could carry in their pockets. The simple facts remain that the penny costs too much to produce, is an ineffective form of our currency, and is a disgrace to Abraham Lincoln himself. And i'm sick of having handfuls of pennies in my car, it's annoying. Rounding prices up would be worth it.
I really think that the penny is useless. I literally have friends who just trash their pennies. In fact I use them projectiles to throw at friends. They're simply not useful anymore. In today's society where literally anything can be bought using a piece of plastic, an inconvenient lump of metal just isn't what the general populace needs. I agree with video number one.
I think the penny has lived out its life. I only remember stories that I heard from my grandparents about penny stores. They are just like $1 stores today, except everything was a penny. I have never seen one, but I'd say now that we are at a time where those stores have increased their prices by a factor of 100, it's time to let go of the penny. I can't remember the last time I have handed a cashier a penny to pay for something. Especially in a society where credit cards and debit cards are becoming prominent, pennies are nearly obsolete, and I am actually surprised they are still around.
Golly gee! How sad it is that a good bunch of you want to retire the penny! Yeah, with the ideal of utilitarianism in mind, removing any kind of bulky physical currency would be awesome, but think about the servers! Let's think about the little people. I might be extremely biased since I'm a server myself, but,to us servers, coins are essential to our jobs due the fact that we want to return exact change because our $2.14 hourly wage with all the tips we make fluctuates too much to actually live off of. EVERY SINGLE PENNY COUNTS! Retiring the penny would always put a negative in our earnings due to the fact that we would always have to round to give back change. The only possible way I could accept the termination of any form of physical currency would be IF and ONLY IF all currency would be electronically transferred!
LONG LIVE THE PENNY!
In an economy where a dollar isnt even worth what it used to be, there is just no room for the penny. The fact that the penny costs more to make than it is actually worth is just pure insanity. The penny has long outlived its usefulness to the AMerican economy, and it is time for it to go. If the money can be used to make our economy more efficient and save of BILLIONS of dollars, then i see no logical reason for the penny to stay in circulation. We should just melt them all down into something far more useful to society. Sure we might have to round prices up, but don't we already do that in our minds? No one thinks "oh, it was only 49.99" no, they say 50 dollars, because that's how useless the penny is.
The penny's days are pretty much done. "The penny has been around for a while" and "One of the most famous presidents face is on it" are not good enough reasons to keep pennies in circulation. If the statistics that the guy in the first video were valid, then why would we continue to spend more to make pennies than what they are actually worth? Most people now days pay no regard to pennies so what is the point of having a currency the majority of the population does not use. Yes multiple pennies would add up over time, but that number is just going to keep increasing as inflation gets worse. Better off to be rid of pennies and keep coins that people actually use.
I agree with the general consensus of comments here as well as the first video. The only people that may actually side with the penny's existence are those with tip jars. I never have anything to do with my pennies, so they always end up in the tip jar. In fact, I cannot remember the last time I paid with pennies. The only negative impact that the disappearance of the penny would have on me is that I have a stash of change in a tin box at home, and there are some pennies in there, but they would probably let me cash out the pennies beforehand anyway... hopefully.
In the economy that we have today, and the daily lifestyle of the average American, a penny really isn't worth much. Everyday many of us see pennies lying on the floor and many of us don't even bother keeping up with the pennies we get back for change. We all barely use the penny these days and quite frankly if they aren't worth more than how much it takes to produce them, they are really pointless.
I think the penny should be eliminated, due to the fact that the value of dollar has already start to lose its value. I agree with the first guy, the amount of money we use to produce the penny cost the government millions of dollars each year. I would say it has outlived its use in today's world.
I think that the penny's production should be discontinued due to the fact that it costs more to make one than what it's worth itself. It is worth almost nothing by itself and is only a hindrance to most of the ones that possess it. I cannot think of a single thing that I can purchase with a sole penny. Lamarr was not being serious in his video and was only doing it for comedy as stated in the top comment. The penny is a nuisance, and should be discontinued immediately or else the economy will only get worse.
I think penny should not be eliminated. If we eliminate penny, the smallest denomination in the U.S. currency, then the prices will go up as nickel will become the next smallest denomination. Soon, people will complain about nickel for being useless. For some people with lower incomes, the price change will affect them more than the wealthy people. In long term, the price increase will be noticeable. Maybe we should simply produce less penny, but still have it as the smallest denomination.
Personally, I think the penny should be eliminated. the guy who was supporting pennies only came up with useless reasons and excuses, which he obviously was making fun of, towards the end to keep the penny. the first guy came up with valid reasons and it made sense that it costs more to make the penny than it is actually worth. I just have a bunch of pennies stored in my wallet that never gets used and just makes my wallet bulky. the dollar value has drastically declined, but the only thing I would be afraid of is that if we get rid of the penny, the dollar value would decline even farther and the dime or quarter would become the new penny.
I belive that the pennies have had a good rub, but should now be eliminated. Think about walking down the street and a penny is in your path. Most likely you are going to keep walking because people see it is as useless. The penny is just a nusiance to keep. Pennies are so small and scream "spend me" but think about the last time you used a penny somewhere.
I believe the penny has become useless. The government itself is wasting money producing the pennies. In 2011 the government spent $120 million to make only $50 million, wasting approximately $70 million in government subsidies. Simply getting rid of the pennies would enable us to save money and appease those who are against the penny.
I'd have to agree with video number one. The penny has simply become obsolete in our current economy. I hardly ever keep pennies around, and if I do, it's not even for monetary purposes. The only reason I ever carry pennies around is because people give them to me with change, but I rarely end up ever using them again for anything other than wishes in fountains and one cent gumball machines.
The lust of the penny has faded away. It passed it's peak and now, it isn't attractive anymore, no longer able to satisfy the lump in people's pants. It doesn't bring that same seductive warmth and comfort that the prettier coins do, so now they're usually forced to wander the streets, settling for the lowest bidder, often abused, tortured, and degraded to a point where all the zinc gets squealed out of them, like a pig. Picked up for a one-night affair, then thrown away as its contents are violated, the penny reaches the streets again, limping and on all fours with its copper smeared all over its face. It's a such a horrible sight to see people, ranging from formal business men to immature kids, gangbanging honest Abe. I mean people would just come up to pennies and basically say "suck my wallet, you're not worthy enough to be mine, your cents aren't big enough to satisfy me." Therefore I side with video 1, it's time for the penny to retire.
In my opinion I think the use of pennies in today's society is just worthless. Today in the modern world where basically majority of the trading and consumer buying is all done by credit and debit cars. Majority of the people these days hate carrying change around. Everyone knows its all about the green bills. The penny is just a worthless coin that has no use in today;s society. instead of wasting copper resources on pennies we should use it on things that are more efficient to humans today.
Honestly i agree with the first video because pennies are just useless now. We have no purpose for them except to give change at a store. I dont know of anyone who actually pays with the penny, they are just not worth enough anymore, especially if they are wasting our tax dollars. I think they should just eliminate it completely and have an economy with the smallest value currency being the nickle. It would save the country billions of dollars per year.
I have to agree that the penny seems pretty useless. A lot of countries have their lowest monetary value at five cents because pennies just take too long to add up. I also heard from several people that it costs more to make a penny than the value of a penny itself. It's not the 18 or 1900s anymore. Pennies don't buy much themselves anymore. Time to stop using it for the sake of tradition and adopt a better use of currency.
I think the facts presented in the first video speak for themselves. Personally, I hate carrying change period (quarters being an exception) because of the load in your pockets and the ease of loss. With the penny being worth so little, I don't see a reason myself to keep them around. I am interested to see how this rounding up of prices and redistribution of the money will work. If everything checks out, I say go for it. As long as they let me exchange my pennies before they take them out of circulation.
I am going to be unique and say I agree with the first video, but, I liked the second video more. Our economy is doing really good right now, not! If it literally takes more money to make the penny then the penny is actually worth then production needs to stop, or at least dwindle, a lot. When my friends and I go somewhere and get pennies for change we either throw them at each other, ask if someone wants them, or leave them in a friends car. Maybe that is not how pennies deserve to be treated, but for some reason carrying onto pennies is simple not worth the time. Boo pennies! Stop production! (Mr. Pye, if you are reading this then my question is, what year do you think it will be when students discuss if there is a need for the nickel anymore?)
I believe its about time for pennies to be eliminated. If all the things john mentioned in his youtube video is true, then the benefits for getting rid of pennies greatly outweighs any reason for having them around. To be honest, I dont even bother to pick up pennies from the floor or even save them at all. Other than having Abraham Lincoln's sexy face on them, they are simply nothing but worthless trash.
In regards to the penny, the history behind the coin is obviously a thorough and complete assortment of events and landmarks that have made it memorable for most Americans. Coin collections usually start small and can easily include the pennies that one held onto since the 1900's or within the uncommon eras, such as during World War II when pennies were made with steel.
However, I have to agree with simply removing the penny and nickel and rounding up price levels to intervals of ten. Following typically standard units and especially models that other countries have used, the U.S. can easily manage to accommodate the increase from saying at 99 cents to a dollar, with tax being at 10 cents a minimum for say price levels beyond 2 dollars.
The issue that the penny leaves has always been its presence in price levels, not because of its cost to manufacture. If companies, businesses, and anything that markets their goods and services to the public, they must account for a reasonable price that their audience can purchase and afford the necessary taxes and regulations on it. Otherwise, the customers will regret having to deal with an incompetent system that both forces uneven payments for the necessities. There are many issues that I could list with such an idea, but progress can be made through studies that can research the impact of inflated price levels to accommodate for a lack of lower cent values like 1 to 9 cents.
Because of inflation, pennies should be removed from circulation. At one point they were considered valuable enough to warrant their usage, but they no longer hold that value. Many people, myself included, never get around to using all of the pennies that we accumulate. Rounding prices or going to an all electronic system would be a worthwhile solution.
It does seem outrageous that is cost more to produce a penny than what it is actually worth, but pennies due carry significance in commerce. Last year their was a practice AP for English that addressed the same issue, and one of the arguments made is that it could result in a small increase in all prices. The $1.99 item become a $2 item automatically because there is no longer a feasible way to account for that one penny. But what about tax or cost manipulation by business. People argue that objects that come to an integer that is not a multiple of 5, will have to be rounded up or down. Most likely the cost will be rounded up in favor of business for profit. So lets pretend that the $1.99 becomes $1.96. This may seem like a minuscule 4 cents, but if half the items in your 100 item shopping cart were to be rounded, you could be loosing two dollars every time you went shopping. I say lets stick with the penny and pay the 2.3 cents extra it costs to produce it to save us the 2 dollars in EVERY shopping trip.
I think the penny has become obsolete. Honestly, I hate having cash and coins. When I can, I pay with my debit card. When I am paying with cash, I don't care about the penny. I clean my room and it's easier for me to throw away pennies I find on the floor than to let them add weight to my purse. I know that I'm not the only one out there who's thrown a penny away before either. That being said, if a piece of currency can be considered trash, I think it's time to retire it. I agree with the first guy. Why should we spend millions a year to produce something so obsolete that it gets thrown away?
The debate on the retirement of the penny is a fairly silly one, and the result is rather obvious. A good number of foreign nations have gotten rid of their coins and small denominations without interruptions to the economy. We used to have a coin called the Half-Cent that we removed from circulation a while back that didn't have a large impact. The penny costs a good deal to make and yes nickels cost a lot also. The argument of rounding up prices is somewhat valid but if you shopped 3 to 4 times a day and it went against you 2 out of 3 times (it shouldn't) then you would lose 3 to 4 cents. The penny used to be valuable but it is time to move on from the outdated currency. People feel irritated when they get pennies, not glad they have money.
I understand why so many people believe the penny should go out of existence but I can't help thinking about prices after the world has been rid of pennies. If we choose to rid ourselves of the penny we agree to higher prices due to the need to round off said prices. Anyone who's ever bought gas understands that every penny counts and if we choose to round off the price of gas we have to deal with the possibility of higher gas prices. And all $0.99 stores will become obsolete and turned to dollar stores. With Texas' sales tax the possibility of higher prices becomes more pertinent. However, I agree with the majority, the cost of making pennies and their insignificance in the modern world constitutes the need to rid ourselves of them. But before we write off the penny as insignificant me should take a moment to understand just how much our lives will change because of this decision.
I think that there is value in the penny in the fact that it is antiquated and useless. Having a respect for the penny is a way to prove that society still had respect for the sublime and less useful things in the world. Just because something is not 100% efficient doesn't mean that it is bad. Being obsessed with efficiency is something that nazis do and that lead to some seriously tragic consequences.
Lloyd Farley
If it wasn't for the opportunity costs for producing pennies, I would advocate for keeping the penny. The use of the penny is definitely underestimated. To some people, every penny counts. We are saying that "oh yeah, I don't even use pennies all they do is take up space", but we are only accounting from personal experience. Out of 300 million people living in the United States, a fraction of them are bound to see financial contribution within their life by the penny. Besides, I doubt that the government would reallocate the money that we would be saving from penny production properly and efficiently.
In my opinion, the government should stop minting the penny since it costs more to make it than its actual worth. However, the problem with doing that would be rounding up prices, and after the penny is eliminated, people would be going after the nickel, so its better to keep it even though its pointless. Even then, I still keep all my change in a jar to cash out whenever it gets full and there are a lot of pennies in there, so I think we should keep them for a while.
P.S: OMG Mr.Pye you used a John Green video; you're awesome! :)
The penny is worthless. Really. At the point where most people don't even use pennies, we should really consider retiring it. The most flabbergasting part about the penny is that it costs us so much money just to produce it which makes absolutely no sense! It's economically not smart whatsoever, and the penny itself does nothing for us. Even in the second video, all the "83 reasons" listed were not economically beneficial. Retire the penny. Just do it.
I agree that the penny should be eliminated. Why should we continue to waste our money to produce a piece of currency that costs more than it's worth? That's ridiculous that the government is just throwing away money like that. The penny has become worthless to many Americans these days, and I don't think eliminating the penny would cause a big disturbance. When walking on the street the only time a person may stop to pick up a penny is if the penny is heads up for "good luck" other than that, people just pass up on the free money laying on the ground. The elimination of the penny would be beneficial to the US economy.
I think the penny is useless in this society. The fact that many people in the world use paper currency now a days and even use nickels, dimes, and quarters more than the penny. I agree with the first video.
I think that the penny should be taken out of circulation with in the next 10 years. With all the things that government today spends tax payer money on, I believe that we can all agree that spending millions (and maybe even billions) of dollars on making a penny in which the cost to make it is more than what it is actually worth. I think with the frustration towards carrying around coins (especially pennies since they are in abundance), you will see more people use their debit cards to have the money come straight from their bank accounts than rather carry around change all the time. It's easier, faster, and you don't to worry about carrying something that makes a lot of noise and in large quantity. Minting a new wave of pennies every year should be very thought of by the government to try and cut some of this superfluous spending. I believe this country could save some much needed money if we just got rid of the penny,
I obviously agree with the first video because the speaker sounded educated and actually made since from facts. The second guy was just an ignorant guy who probably only thinks he is more athletic than the first guy because of his skin color. The penny has outlived its usefulness so as an evolving society we need to move forward and away from the ineffective currencies. Pennies are not used as money even anymore, they are just used as projectiles or accumulate as trash. The penny and nickel need to be removed from circulation.
I agree with the first guy for two reasons. For one, the second guys' reason were somewhat foolish. Secondly, the first guy stated a very important idea where as the penny is costing more to make than it is worth so has outlived its usefulness. If we rounded up on everything so we didnt have to use pennies it would actually then be more of a profit to the Government because then people would be paying more than they actually have to by a couple cents and the government would be saving tons of money because they don't have to make any more pennies. The only problem is that there will be jobs lost for some people, but I still agree with the first guy.
The penny should be eliminated, in my opinion. Having pennies around is a nuisance for me and I definitely do not use them at all. The fact that the cost to produce the penny is more than its actual worth is outrageous. The first video provided some great examples on why the penny should be eliminated. The second did not give valid reasons on keeping the penny. The penny should retire.
There are certain issues that make it really hard to choose sides. This is one of them. On one hand, the penny costs more to make then what it actually is. Our country is spending lots of money, as John Green said, to pay for the production. On the other hand, rounding up prices can be a future issue. Either way, I believe pennies may have lived out their days. I just cannot wait for the day when my dad stops complaining about them!
To me, the penny has no use as a part of the American currency. Why spend so much money on something that people don't even want? The first video got the point across, but the second video seemed as more of a joke. The penny just isn't as useful as it was 100's of years ago. Today, the only useful coin is the quarter and maybe the dime since you can use those for anything, mainly quarters.
I don't know I love the pennies. There so cool and remember the Wendy's commercial 99 abe's = a sandwich. Then what are you doing to do if u need 4 cents to get something? How would they pay 1 cent back in pennies. LOL. I think the pennies should stay in the purpose of nothing at all but just extra change
The penny is essentially useless. I, admittedly, am an avid coin saver, but I absolutely hate pennies. They amount to only fifty cents per rapper!!! Pennies are an absolute waste considering the material it takes to make them and their monetary value compared to their face value. If this were the thirties and you could still buy a Batman comic for five cents the penny would be useful, but this is 2013 and comic books, even at Half-Priced books, cost around three dollars. America needs to stop being so sentimental and move on from the penny.
I think the penny can be useful in the long run. If it were to be eliminated, prices would round up to the closest possible number, and consumer products would just be more expensive. It can just save a lot of money and make everyday items less expensive.
Honestly, the penny doesn't make sense by the fact that it cost more to make a penny then to its own worth. People now don't even use pennies to pay for things. Inflation getting worse is not helping the value of the penny either. Ultimately, getting rid of penny would do us good. Even Canada was smart enough to get rid of their penny in 2008.
I'm still not sure what the economic benefit is that keeps the penny around but it should definitely be eliminated. Too many resources are being used to create something that ends up being put into a coinstar anyways. Now in the age of online purchases however, the penny is fine because it only takes up a number value in your digital bank account but a physical penny in itself is essentially useless.
I think that the penny has outlived its purpose. During the 60s and 70s, the penny served similar to today's quarters. Personally, I have no real problem with pennies, to me I like to collect a few shiny pennies, and store them. But, when looking at the production of the penny, it is useless to make the penny. (It might also create some space in the car.)
Yes the penny is downright unneeded for current society. The only reason why it is still here today is because people are not on the general liking of "change". "Change" as in the thought that there would be no more pennies in peoples pocket. Of course pennies have been around for a while but the the penny was worth the same as it was back then. By eliminating pennies now, millions dollars would be saved that the economy need.
If there's any spending cut that needs to happen, it should be the discontinuation of the penny. The fact that the government is losing money to keep it around is just absurd. The penny was actually valuable several years ago but hasn't been relevant at all in recent years. There is an argument about the sentimental value that the penny has but in economic times like this, we need to cut any unnecessary dead weight, whether we'd like to or not.
Oh my! Isn't it sad that a good chunk of humans in this society conceptualize the penny as a some sort of significant necessity to the U.S. economy. For those condescending minds that believe that a penny could benefit somewhat to the present day society should alleviate themselves to such a optimistic on look and see the pros and cons of a penny in the complete aspect. What does that mean? Of course a penny provide a major income for those servers relying on tip but imagine how the elimination of the penny would do to these servers. With a penny gone, one can concur that everything would be rounded up as such but that thought process is quite whimsical compared to the major impact it would receive to the economy dispensing pennies rather than just a few hard-working servers having a few extra cents in their pockets as to not having economy save approximately almost seventy million dollars a year.
In all reality, the penny has no value. Spending more money on a currency's worth is pointless. Think about it, how many people actually use a penny (or change for that matter)? It would save the US a lot of time and money to stop their production.
I disagree that we should get rid of pennies. Think about it? If we did eliminate the pennies how would cashiers give $3.58 back in change? They would have to set up a whole new system which would cost even more money. Some people believe that in reality a penny is worthless, but honestly, there are people out in other places, that we do not know, that live off of pennies. In my opinion, I believe that people should keep their spare change and cash it at their local grocery store. You'll be surprise by how much you earn from keeping up with spare change for a while.
I feel as if we got rid of the penny it would be a tough change. Me personally, I try to pay in exact change whenever i can, or if not at least cover the coins portion and get a bill back. I don't know anyone who enjoys getting 97 cents back for there dollar. I guess that's what this whole discussion is about, so that if we got rid of the penny we wouldnt have those odd prices.
I think pennies should be eliminated. They are not cost-effective to produce and are worth nothing in today's economy. What can you really buy with a cent? Everything is always $n.99 anyways, the one cent roundup would be cheaper than the cost to keep producing pennies.
Video 1 has many strong arguments for why the penny should be discontinued and I agree with his viewpoint. Besides the fact that pennies cost 1.7 cents to make, they are also annoying in a practical sense. I hate carrying around coins (especially pennies). I think we should discontinue the penny and round all prices to the nearest multiple of $0.05 so that the nickel can be the smallest unit of currency.
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