It costs 2 cents for the United States Mint to manufacture a Lincoln cent. In 2021, the government struck 7.1 billion of them. Two-thirds never circulate. They clutter up banks. Yet we keep minting them.
Whenever the nation’s “greatness” is bandied about, by those who imagine greatness is a quality that can be self-assigned, a little voice says, “Yeah, we can’t even get rid of the penny.”
Australia managed. In 1990. Canada, too — a decade ago. Also Brazil, Finland, New Zealand, Norway, Israel — quite a list. Are they “greater” than we are? Certainly pennywise.
Enough prelude. It was a shameful weekend for the country, even though the federal government didn’t shut down, as it seemed about to. A good thing.
But avoiding disaster should never be confused with triumph — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called the stopgap bill “a victory for the American people.” No, a victory for the American people would be a smoothly functioning government that can’t be hijacked by any cadre of extremists who feel so inclined.
This is a good moment to step back and understand what is going on, big picture. The United States is a majoritarian democracy. In theory. Meaning the will of the people is expressed through elections, naming representatives who make laws and decide policies.
People who find themselves in the minority, like the MAGA extremists who almost shut down the government, are not happy with this, because this representative world doesn’t revolve around their precious selves.
So they try to achieve their ends — slashing Social Security and Medicaid, blocking immigration, cutting aid to Ukraine — by cheating. Procedural tricks. Refusing to fund the government. Holding their breath and throwing tantrums.
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The penny can't be eliminated as long as there are state sale's taxes! And don't give me the crap that rounding up or down is ultimately a wash for people. Many people will get screwed out of money if we went to nickels as the smallest coin & then went to 5¢ pricing, as their prices will always get rounded up & lose money on the transactions!
ReplyDeleteI went to the grocery store again! The total was $171.34 Rounded up i'd pay $171.35 , but like everyone else I used a debit card. So not an issue. Used to fill a quart mason jar with change every couple of months, now it can take a year. I Guess i'd have to go to ALDI to save that penny. The most they'd hit you for is 4 cents.
DeleteI understand there are folks that are poor. This would have to happen 100 times for it to be $4. $4
We're getting screwed a lot worse than that already 10% sales tax!
To say nothing of exorbitant price increases. Now there's a real problem . corporate greed
Trans John/Karen 3/22
ReplyDeleteWhen you first broached this subject years ago, I didn’t know if people would go for it. Then I realized that so many, many people looked on pennies as nothing more than a nuisance, and had for years. I knew someone who threw them in the garbage whenever she got any. This was over 40 years ago.
In 1968, a friend and I were at Evergreen Plaza (I’ll pause here to let the people who, like myself, spent much of their time and money at the Plaza to shed a few tears), and ran into a couple of young ladies he knew, and we decided to stop at Wimpy’s on the lower level for Cokes. Apparently, the middle aged waitress didn’t appreciate 4 giggling teens ‘wasting her time’. Still, she deserved a tip for her efforts. So my friend Pat and I searched our pockets for pennies, and…Do you have any idea how many pennies teen girls can fit into their purses? All told, we managed to pack somewhere between $1.50 and $2.00 under a saucer after we paid the tab, then raced for the exit. As the door closed behind us we heard somebody yell ‘those damn kids, where are they?’ (Adults said ‘Those damn kids’ a lot in 1968.)
Ah, but back to the subject. As you can see from the first comment, some people aren’t going to let pennies go. Do not be surprised if we all someday get a letter informing us that ‘if you have experienced having your purchases rounded upward from 3 to 5 cents, you may be eligible for a reward in a class action suit, currently being filed against the U.S. Treasury,’ etc. Of course, the concept of being ‘cheated’ out of 2 cents works both ways, unless one can plan out your purchases so that the final total ends up in a three. In which case one should probably fly to Vegas and start ‘counting cards’.
As for the zinc and Coin-Star lobbyists…like many other lobbying groups, most people don’t know anything about them, including myself until this morning. As always, it pays to read your column. Hopefully not in Pennie’s. See, even spellcheck hates Pennie’s. I just got tired of backing up and retyping Pennie’s, apostrophe and all. :-D
I worked at the downstairs Wimpys at Evergreen Plaza in 1966. My “ salary” was 83c per hour, plus tips. I was delighted if I got a dime tip. I don’t think that waitress was mad at you when she saw her tip!
DeleteI think the idea was that she was mad because the tip was all in pennies.
DeleteBack then a penny was still valuable! Remember penny candy?
DeleteThe woman just seemed to be mad that we were there, only ordering Cokes. Come to think of it, the tip WAS probably more than what we spent, you’re right. Alas, about 6 years ago I was out at Little Company of Mary Hospital visiting my mom, got off the bus at Western and 95th and…OMG. Rubble. I even walked the perimeter all the way down to Carson’s in total disbelief. How dare they! Even if the mall wasn’t half what it once was. How dare they! Aside from the money, (regular minimum wage was only about a buck and a half) I hope you have as many good memories of The Plaza as I do.
ReplyDeleteWaitresses back in the day...I'm talking early Sixties...weren't thrilled when they had to deal with kids in their teens. Especially early teens. Especially suburban punks in junior high who liked to go downtown and mess around. Which I was, in 1960-61.
DeleteMy buddies and I would go "to-da-Loop" on the Howard "L" and immediately go up to the Top of the Rock, in the Prudential Building, and look at the city. There was an ordinary restaurant at ground level. We would have lunch there. Almost every time. I'm sure we were a handful. And we didn't tip enough, natch, or left a pitifully small amount. We were rubes.
We went so many times that one of the waitresses, a pudgy middle-aged waitress named Annie, got to know us by sight. I guess the place was having a bad day one Friday, during spring break. They were short-staffed, very stressed, and very busy. Annie was rude and cranky. Service was agonizingly slow, and the food was piss-poor. We got peeved.
One of my buddies wrote a nasty note on a napkin...which ended with "Your tip is under the lousy soy sauce." We each left a handful of coins...PENNIES... paid our bill, and left. Long story short--she followed us out onto Randolph St. and threw those pennies at us.
We all thought that was hilarious. We laughed our way down Michigan Avenue, on the way to somewhere else, like the Art Institute or a bookstore or a record store. Sixty-plus years, and I can still see that note. and read those words. And I'm not at all proud of what we did with our pennies. We were such young a-holes. Not one of my shining moments.
I have been an amateur numismatist since childhood. Still have my collection. Have a coin from Germany with the swastika on it. Like your stamp.
ReplyDeleteCan't say I ever recall the fugio cent. I'm shocked and embarrassed. Don't know how that gt past me.
Great heads up to an important item. Now I want one. Going to save change til I can afford one