The Penny Debate: Retire it or Keep it?

People say that finding a penny will give you good luck. I say that finding pennies is annoying. Where am I supposed to put the ninety million pennies I find in my couch? WHERE?

Hello everybody, it is Hibba, your weekly debating blogger. Today’s topic is: Should the U.S keep the penny, or retire it?

As you might have guessed, I am no fan of the penny.

You might think that if there is no penny, we will have higher prices.This is nothing but a myth. This is  actually based off an inaccurate study, which showed that when people would round to the nearest nickel, they would always round to the higher price, rather than to the lower price. This supposedly hurt the economy And this study, no surprisingly, was funded by the Zinc lobby. And for those who do not know, 97.5 percent of the penny is made of ZINC. Don’t try to be slick Zinc lobby….

In a newer study done by Robert Whaples, an economics professor from Wake Forest University, used data from about 200,000 transactions from a multi-state convenience store around the U.S that rounded to the nearest nickel. And the rounding, to the larger amount, or smaller, did absolutely NOTHING.  

Another reason is because I think pennies should be eliminated is because pennies also have a very limited use. Vending machines, toll booths, laundry machine,parking meters, and most other coin-accepting machines don’t accept pennies. Nobody, and no inanimate thing, wants to waste their time counting those twenty pounds of pennies you have. Other than Coinstar. I’m sorry, but no one  really cares about Coinstar.

My last reason is that because pennies have no purchasing  power. When your grandma was alive, her town must have had a penny candy shop. There, you could buy a piece of candy, for a penny. But now? You can’t even buy a penny for a penny! A penny, as of 2016, cost 1.56 cents to make. Now, don’t give me excuses, like that they sell Pokemon cards of Amazon for a penny. Yes, you are right. The cards DO cost a penny. But what about tax, and shipping? You’re probably going to end up paying a dollar for your Pikachu card. To say it straight out, you can’t buy a thing with the penny. It has no power. They are a nuisance.

You see, pennies are pretty much a waste. The U.S surprisingly spends $50 million on the coin that ends up getting lost in the unknowns of our couches, car seats, etc.

With the short life of going from the bank, to the store, to you, and then a piggy bank, why do we still have this coin? “But…. but… what if the economy collapses?!”. No, it won’t, to those who are concerned about the stock market, and other money stuff. The U.S has actually removed its lowest value coin: the half-cent coin. In 1857, they were no longer legal tender. The U.S did not go through any mini-Great Depression. The U.S was totally fine after they removed it.

Let me give you the list of countries in alphabetical order that have removed their lowest value coins. You’re probably not even going to read it, but here goes nothing:

Argentina

Australia

Belgium

Brazil

Canada

Croatia

Czech Republic

Denmark

Fiji

Finland

Hong Kong

Hungary

Ireland

Israel

Italy

Malaysia

Netherlands

New Zealand

Norway

Papua New Guinea

Russia

Singapore

South Africa

Sweden

Switzerland

United Kingdom

Uruguay

Vanuatu

See? If America ends the penny, it won’t be alone! These countries have retired their coins, so why should the U.S keep their lowest-value, good-for-nothing, coin, too?

But , that’s just my opinion on whether we should keep the American penny. Now, it’s your turn to join in, too! Do you it makes cents that America is keeping the penny? Why or why not?

Hey, and why not throw a few suggestions for next week’s debate? I’ll always shout out whose idea it was!

Truly Yours-Hibba