Time to cash out: Why America’s smallest denomination needs to go. When was the last time that you went to the store and paid with pennies? You can’t buy anything with pennies anymore, vending machines won’t accept them. A Harvard Economist stated: “The purpose of the monetary system is to facilitate exchange. The penny no longer serves their purpose. when people start leaving a monetary unit at the cash register for the next customer, the unit is too small to be useful.” Americans should stop using pennies because they aren’t useful, they have no value, and they release broad amounts of carbon dioxide. “A penny saved in a penny earned.” Benjamin Franklin’s famous adage, has become a nostalgic phrase.
However, the reality is that pennies have become more of a burden than a benefit. With a history dating to 1793 , the penny’s value has significantly decreased, rendering it nearly obsolete. Today, producing pennies cost more than their face value, and their limited purchasing power clogs vending machines and ATM transactions. It is time to reconsider the penny’s place in our economy and environment, because the production of pennies also has environmental consequences from mining and transportation. a Mining Zinc and Copper produces carbon dioxide emissions and pollutants and uses vast amounts of energy.
When you pick up a penny on the street it brings you good luck, how do you think it ended up on the street because no one wants it even if it brings you good “luck.” As a result of that extra time per transaction, the average citizen wastes 730 seconds a year (12 minutes) paying with pennies. Harvard economist Greg Mankiw says that this wasted time costs the US economy around $1 billion annually. An estimate from Citizens to Retire the penny says that the 107 billion cash transactions in the United States annually add up to 120 million hours of time between customers and employees –
at a cost of $2 billion to the US economy. To conclude this, American pennies have zero benefits.That is the exact recipe for uselessness. They probably don’t even bring you luck. The penny is a drag, so let’s get rid of them.
