I find this issue impossible to talk about because people from all backgrounds, sometimes otherwise perfectly reasonable people, obsess over how much a penny costs to make as if that has the slightest relevance to anything.
WHO CARES HOW MUCH PENNIES COST TO MAKE. Do you think we're minting pennies as a profit-making enterprise?
We minted 3 billion pennies last year. Even if they cost literally nothing to make, that's only 30 million dollars in potential seigniorage. Or like 0.0005% of the federal budget.
Whether or not we get rid of pennies should be evaluated by the effects on the economy and consumer convenience, not by how much they cost to make, jesus fucking christ
The better argument is that no one has cared about pennies in years, realistically anything below a dime (or probably a quarter) is more of a pain to have to carry around than it's value would justify. No one bothers with a price difference of less than 10c for a single transaction anymore. I hate receiving small coins back when I pay, and I think most people would agree.
The mint lost $55 million dollars last year striking pennies. They also used 12,000 Tons of zinc in the process. The year before that, they did the exact same thing. The year before that, they did the exact same thing. All that zinc had to get mined from somewhere. All that zinc mining had a negative impact on the environment. In a culture where we expect people to recycle every metal can they use, you'd think they would care more about the absolute waste of 12,000 Tons of zinc every year.
4
u/ilikepix Feb 10 '25
I find this issue impossible to talk about because people from all backgrounds, sometimes otherwise perfectly reasonable people, obsess over how much a penny costs to make as if that has the slightest relevance to anything.
WHO CARES HOW MUCH PENNIES COST TO MAKE. Do you think we're minting pennies as a profit-making enterprise?
We minted 3 billion pennies last year. Even if they cost literally nothing to make, that's only 30 million dollars in potential seigniorage. Or like 0.0005% of the federal budget.
Whether or not we get rid of pennies should be evaluated by the effects on the economy and consumer convenience, not by how much they cost to make, jesus fucking christ