What do you think about the penny? The penny is a coin that is worth one cent. It is made of copper and zinc. Should we keep this coin or get rid of it? The thing is, we should get rid of it. We shouldn’t keep the penny because it is worthless, wastes time, and costs more to produce than it is worth. The penny takes up too much space in many ways.
The penny is rarely used and is usually just put or thrown away. “We often store them in jars...” (Sommer). Why do people store them in jars? People store them in jars for several reasons. You can’t purchase anything with the penny. No one even uses it to pay for anything. People don’t even use the penny to play games. What do we do with the penny? We throw it away or store it away. Additionally, …show more content…
the penny wastes time.
The penny wastes people’s time, as well as the U.S.’ mint’s time. “Pennies may not be big money, even if you add them together...” (Sommer). You could have 100 pennies and how much would that add up to? Only a single dollar. If you wanted to have $20 in pennies, you would need 2000 pennies! Just think about how much space that would take. 1 jar? 2 jars? Who knows? If we dispose of this coin, the U.S. mint would have less work to do. The penny also wastes people’s time when they have to count them. To count pennies, you have to count them one by one, which is time consuming. Furthermore, the penny costs more to produce than it is actually worth.
The penny costs 2.4 cents to produce and distribute just one single penny (Sommer). However, the penny is only worth one cent, compared to 2.4 cents. Where does the U.S. mint find the money to produce and distribute pennies? The U.S. mint finds the money from taxpayers of the U.S. In 2013 alone, taxpayers lost over $105 million on pennies and nickels. That’s right. Us, the taxpayers, pay for the U.S. mint to make these pennies when we don’t even use them. What’s the point in keeping the penny then? There is no point. However, others don’t agree with my impression on the penny.
Those who believe that we should save the penny would say that if we get rid of the penny, prices will be rounded up, causing us to pay even more for things.
However, if we get rid of the penny, prices will be rounded down and the extra costs for rounding up would only be a couple of cents. More people just throw or store away the penny anyways, so isn’t it basically the same as rounding up the prices? Even if you do add up the extra cents from the rounding up of prices, it wouldn’t even be a large enough amount to cause concern. People who want to save the penny also believe that pennies aren’t worthless when they are used as donations for charities. If we get rid of the penny, people are most likely to begin donating nickels. Nickels are worth 4 more cents than pennies. Also, no matter how many pennies you add up, they are still not worth enough to pay for what the charities need. They also think that the penny is a part of the American culture and should not be removed. If we get rid of the penny, it will still remain as a part of the American culture. The only difference is that the penny is no longer going to be made. Old pennies could be kept and sold for higher prices as well as they will become more rare. They can also be melted and recycled. Pennies can even become a collector’s
item!
As you can see, pennies are very barren, they waste the time of people and the U.S. mint, and it costs too much to produce than what it’s valued at. No one uses the penny. It also takes too much work and time to count and create pennies. The penny also takes 1.4 cents more to produce than it is actually worth. I chose this side of the argument because my impression on the other side of the argument is flawed. What do you think? Are you for or against saving the penny?