Retire The Penny? Keep The Penny? discussion
What is your two cents on this issue? Retire it, or Save it?
I am not in your classes, so I will write my paragraph as I please.Retire it.
by retiring it, you will raise taxes to 10 cents to the dollar and those extra 3 cents can be used for things like education, but since the Republican party locked themselves into not rasing the taxes, for things that we need, this will not get done. The extra taxes would need to be managed well though, and not tossed into arms funds.
Besides, it is taking money out of an already crappy economy.
I am for retiring the penny. I think it is a waste of time. I am tired of fumbling in my pocket for the last two cents. I could instead use the time I waste on counting pennies for useful things. Besides, it barely has value any more. They lay all over the sidewalk. Even homeless people don't bother to pick them up. So I believe they should be retired.
Save the penny.If we retired or inactivated the penny it would cause some serious consequences! Think of how life would be if we did get rid of the penny, and what cheap managers would do, ...they would raise the prices of things so that they could reach the highest possible profits on the things that particular store provides. If something had the price of 10.54$ and the manager wanted more money when their was no more pennies around all they would have to do is make the item 10.55$ and that would automatically equal the profit of $11. Also, don't you think we owe more than a penny to Lincoln? If you can even think of all the ways he helped us as a nation, you would see that it would be wrong to even think of retiring a penny if it was only because it cost to much to make one. When in reality it costs more than a nickel to make a nickel and no one seems to have a problem with that, so what's the big deal with the penny? They're both money!
I am for keeping the penny. Just take a minute and think. If the penny were to get retired, then money would have more value, and prices would skyrocket (like they’re not already…?) and another Great Depression would result, possibly. If for every person in the U.S. you got rid of five pennies, that would be about $15,056,997.40 gone from the U.S. If there was 100 pennies — 1 dollar — from every person in the U.S., then it would result to the U.S. losing $301,139,947. Most people have about 500 pennies, I would say, so make that $1,505,699,735 dollars. Gone. Leaving. Bye-bye. Prices would rise, and the economy would fall. Not like it isn’t already, but even so. SAVE THE PENNY!!!--ali the great
Should we retire the penny? Personally I think we shouldn't. One of the key points the CRP (Citizens for Retiring the Penny) is making is that transactions made with a penny at any common store take up time, they then reverted the ‘wasted’ time into money and estimated that the U.S. is losing around 10 billion dollars due to this. However the time ‘wasted’ during store transactions would not gain back ‘lost’ money due to the fact that during the ‘saved’ time most Americans would probably be having a few seconds extra leisure time since they are not scheduled to work at that moment. The CPR is saying that most people do not even pick up a penny anymore due to its low value, this however is not true. Clearly when saying this statement they did not consider the portion of America that is in poverty, or even poor. Many children that come from poor families may think it’s a blessing when they find a penny on the side of the street, they can add it to their savings or it might help them buy some food so that they won’t have to go hungry that night. The penny also adds up to millions in the funds of charities all over the nation. The penny is a very important part of our nation’s commerce, and it should not be retired.
Mod
Mr. Harris
Save the pennyI definitely think that we should keep th penny because just like Eli said what cheap managers we would have that raise the price on products and make the highest profit. The way we under stand the amount of the coins would change and it would be very con fusing on how much a nickel is or how much a quarter is and visa versa. And what about Abe Lincoln isn't he important to us and that we went and put his head on the penny well not literally but are they just going to erase Jefferson of the nickel and put Lincoln or are they going to just cram his face next to Jeff. If their not then they should just keep the penny.
I think we should retire the penny as soon as possible, the penny is a nuisance and completely unnecessary to the economy. Do 3 or 4 cents really matter that much, I would be willing to give that up for the convenience. I don't think retiring the penny would make Abraham Lincoln roll in his grave, he already has his face on the five and one of the most famous monuments in the Capital. The penny is almost worthless and will no doubt become completely worthless in the next 10 years. Another major problem with the penny is what it is made of, copper is way to valuable right now to be making an almost worthless currency out of it. Five dollar bills don’t cost five dollars to make so why should a penny cost more than a penny to make. I can wait 2.5 seconds but it is very annoying having 20 pennies when you could have had 4 nickels. At this point the penny is nearing worthlessness and the expenditures required to make it are the last thing our economy needs right now is unnecessary expenses.--William Phillips
Mod
We need to save the penny! Honestly, how can we just get rid of it, drop it like yesterdays news. We will always have the memories of picking up a penny off the ground and smiling, despite knowing that in truth it won't bring us good luck, but the throught is too good to try and deny. Personally, I think it would be too complicating to try and retire the penny. Why spend time trying to stop making the penny when the government should be getting out troops out of Iraq or trying to find a cure for AIDS. And what about good ole' Abe? Without him we would still have be enslaving those who have a different skin color. How can we be so "heartless" and "re-assassinate" him all over again--cause the pain all over again? As if the first time wasn't bad enough. So please save America the embarrassment of now having to say "a nickel for you thoughts," and keep the penny on your mind!
My view on Retiring the penny or save the penny is retiring it. Retiring the penny can be a good thing. You can stop using and wasting the products that make the pennies, which cost more then its worth. US Mint produces 7 million pennies every year. All cost $100 million. Which pay fo all the things that go into the penny. Also its a waste of time. If your paying for something and you need pennies it takes about 2 to 2.5 sec. to get it. That is why i want to retire the penny.
I'm for saving the pennie because it would help many people in their money issues. Another reason for saving the pennies is because some people dont have an extra nickel or dime to use instead of a pennie. Also their are alot of pennies laying around everywhere so if u need an extra penny or two it won't be hard finding it. This will help because you won't be embarrased because your a penny too short, but if they rounded the pennies to the nearest nickel then if your short on cash it will be hard finding one. Also making nickels cost a little more than making pennies so if you make a lot of nickels it would cost our nation a whole lot of more money. Also it would increase taxes which would not help people who have only a little money. So having pennies would help people who need a little extra money. This is why I think we should keep the penny.
I think that I stand on both sides. I think we should keep the penny because it is one cent and if you have 25 of them, you can exchange them for a quarter. The penny is also helpful if you are one cent short of the balance you need to pay. If you are one cent short, all you need to do is pull out a penny. I think we should do away with the penny because it is just one cent and not many things are just one cent any more. Another reason we should do away with the penny is because carrying a lot of pennies around just makes your pocket bulge. That is where I stand on this issue.
Keep the penny!!!!!I believe that the penny should stay. I think some people need something to be angry about, and they look for things to get mad at that aren’t really that important. I believe the idea of retiring the penny one of those ideas. Why get rid of a piece of currency that’s being used frequently every day? So what if nobody wants them? They’re not worth very much on their own, but they add up. Like the second website said, pennies add up to millions of dollars that are given to charity. And think about it, they just want to get rid of the coin that’s worth the least. After they get rid of it, then after time nobody would want the nickel because it’s worth the least, and we’ll just keep loosing money. So next time you’re thinking about retiring the penny, consider how much money our society will be losing and how much more money Americans will have to pay over time because everything is rounded to the nearest nickel.
I went to these websites, and I read what they had to say. Where I stand in this debate, I say to save the poor penny. I say this because I believe that the penny does have a lot of use in our society still. I do not like the idea of having to round up or down the cost of pennies. I personally think it is stupid. Also, like some of the little luck sayings about pennies such as: “Find a penny pick it up. Then all day you will have good luck.” Require the penny to still be available.
Why would we retire the penny? What is the point. There would just be millions and millions of usless penies just moving around the U.S. Lincoln was put on the penny to honor him so getting rid of the penny would be direspectful. The cost of everything would rise. Instead of by 1 cent it would rise by 5. I know it doesn't sound like much but if you have to pay off a huge debt that difference would make a big difference. I think the penny should remain part of American Currency.
I definetly support the penny retirment. I think that it does not make sense to continue to waste money to make something that very many people use. On top of that, most people consider it an insult to give a penny. And, it has such a small value that no one really needs to use this cooper colored cylinder.
I totally agree with Collin but also with Davids idea of retiring the penny. There is a saying(you've probably heard of it) "A penny Saved is is a penny earned" well all of those pennies would add up and you could be a millionaire! (thats not my point) okay so even though i ,personally, hate change and coins, i usually find that i need those extra pieces of Zinc. But when i read the website for retiring the penny, they spend a lot of money on the zinc! But then what'll happen to Lincoln? so, each time i read the websites, my opinion changes becuase i believe in both reasons(if that makes sense)!
Chris, the price of things would not rise by 5 cents. As the man said, we would still use the penny it would just not be used as much.
I think that we should retire the penny. For one, it is foolish to circulate currency that costs more to produce than it's actually worth. The penny costs 1.4 cents to create and it is only valued at one cent. Another reason we should retire the penny is because it takes up too much time to try and complete transactions using pennies. It adds 2 to 2.5 more seconds of time and money to both people and the U.S. mint. So, why should we keep this coin in circulation? Simple, we shouldn't.
I STAND ON BOTH SIDES.UPSIDE: We find pennies on the ground every day it adds up more money as we speak and after all pennies are good luck.It is used every day from people and even though it is not worth a lot it could even add up to a million dollars!Downside:pennys take along time to make even a dollar when a quater just takes 4 lousy coins.Pennys can take up alot of space in purses and wallets and thats my opinon.
I think we should not change anything...Really! So 2 1/2 seconds more at a register WHOOPDEE DOO!! You dont need to flee the country every day you need to go to the store. Although it can sometimes be annoying it is also a form of currancy in which we should embrace and not banish from our society. I think we just just not mess with anything.
I support thr retrement of the penny. I think the arguments for retiring it are very good. The arguments against it are ok but not as strong. Just turn the pennies into dollars, exchange 100 pennies for 1 dollar. Problem solved. Gid rid of them.
I am neutral on the retire the penny or keep the penny debate. I am neutral because no matter what happens there will be pros and cons. If we get rid of the penny, prices will go up in almost everything. This rise in prices could cost family hundreds of dollars each year. On the other hand, if we keep the penny, we lose out time. Transactions at the cash register are 2 to 2.5 seconds longer when involving pennies. Also, it costs more to create a penny then the penny is really worth. So either way there are pros and cons, and someone is always unhappy.
I do not think the penny should be retired at all. For one thing, how would you just completely abolish the penny? As http://www.retirethepenny.org/ says, 7 billion pennies are created each year, how do you just suddenly stop using so many pennies completely? It’s simple, you really, can’t. Also, how do you expect people to round the change they use? Won’t that just take longer? Finding pennies hidden in the depths of your wallet won’t take as long as, this, for example; “The change is 13 cents. I don’t have a dime. So, I get two nickels… what do I do now…. Overpay by 2 cents?” Small amounts such as two, three, and four cents add up over time… Why retire the penny when it is way easier to keep it circulating, and with that, I do not feel like having to round every, single, bit of change if have. It may take time to find that extra two cents, but have to just round up makes prices skyrocket…. Aren’t various items already too much? Think about gas, for example. 3.45 becomes 3.50 and eventually adds up. We don’t need that.
i think you should keep the penny in the U.S and not make it dissapear. i think it should stay because without it we couldnt do the right type of change or prices. i also think it shouls stay because most likely the prices are most likely to rice to make the prices5,10,15,etc... unstead of 1,2,3,4. also the taxes might rice to 9% because of no more pennys.
I think the penny sould stay because with the penny retired places like the alamo might not have the penny press machine anymore and thoose pressed pennies make great suvieners and the pressed penny machines make alot of money to restore the historical sitesthe penny should also stay because the other coins are silver and the penny is the only like it. what ever happend to don't live up to peer pressure? the penny might be bullied but it stayed through it all I LOVE THE PENNY
"RETIRE THE PENNY, OR KEEP THE PENNY"I say just leave the penny alone. It has been working for 99 years and I believe that it would be fine if the Federal Mint kept on producing the penny. I agree with the people who want to keep the penny in our money system. It's funny to see my mom be excited when she finds a penny and says, "See a penny pick it up, all the day you'll have good luck!" then she puts it in your pocket so she doesn't spend it right away. The penny is part of our tradition and it wouldn't hurt to keep it that way.
Oh, yes. We should retire the penny. My main argument is that pennies represent less money than they are made with. Our economy is already in the toilet, why spent money on something that we don’t really need? The penny may be part of our history, but it’s not really important. Some people might say that retiring the penny will make things more expensive. This is not true. In fact, getting rid of the penny will not make items more expensive, or less expensive. The effect would be neutral. And charitable organizations that ask for pennies can now ask for nickels. They’ll get more money! So, removing the penny will help them. And I don’t know about everyone else, but the penny ANNOYS ME. Whenever someone hands me change-with tons of pennies-I drop them all over the place! Since pennies are so small, they’re hard to keep a hold of, at least for me. To be honest, we don’t need all this change! Do you really use the penny all the time? Is it critical to have? No!
I think that we should retire the penny in a way. They should stop making them, but they should still be used as a legal tender. It seams like a waste to keep making them for a few reasons. For example: pennies really do waste time. Also they are mainly just sitting in people’s wallets, pockets, or purses not getting used, so why do we really need them? It does not make sense that we could not use them at all, but if it makes sense to just use what we all ready have. There are probably enough pennies already in use to use for a long time. It also would probably save the government some money if pennies really do cost more than a penny to make. That is my thoughts on the retirement of the penny.
I think that we should save the penny because even though they are not worth very much, over the years if people were to save, and save, it can end up adding up to alot. If nobody wants to keep around pennies they can easily donate the change to a charity that needs it. Although the U.S spends billions of dollars on pennies each year, it doesn't hurt to save once in a while.People need to save the penny!!!!
i think we should retire the penny because millions of people throw pennies on the street everyday and throw them in wells when they are supposedly making a "wish". They are usless to us and have no meaning. There would be no difference as to what would happen if there were no pennies. Pennies are not worth very much and there is no use of them if we don't use them. Maybe the use of pennies really does not have a meaning. It is just a waste of money and time to make a billion pennies a year. We do this enough and now would be a good time to atleast try not to do that as much. I think we should retire the penny, for the sake of the penny. It has lived a very long full life and it's time to go away now.
KEEP THE PENNY!!!I think that we should keep the penny because what if some one bought something for 99 cents and didn't get apenny back. That would get me mad because 99 centsis not a dollar.
Thats why I think we should keep the penny.
We should keep the penny because it would help some people who don’t have that much money. It would also complicate the prices of things because, and then everything that thing that needed the use of pennies would have to be round the nearest nickel. Then the taxes would also go up. They should just leave it how it is. But if it takes to much money to make a penny then they should just raise the taxes to 9 cents.
I think that the penny should be kept. It’s still important and you really shouldn’t change what American tradition has kept for so long. If you’re going to whine about how much the penny itself actually costs, then make it out of simpler materials (duh). The penny is very important, having to round numbers so that it’s all divisible by fives, I mean, we could do that, but what if it originally would cost $9.93 and that’s exactly how much money you have and they rounded it to $9.95, that would be very unfair! The pennies are part of what America is and we should not retire them. A lot of things would change, it would be almost as bad as when Pluto wasn’t classified a planet! I say once more, we have to keep the penny no matter what we have to do to keep it. -Michi ☼
I am in both sides of retiring and saving the penny, but I have more favor to saving the penny than retiring. I don’t want the penny to be saved because 100 pennies make 1 dollar and so one. If we save the penny maybe US economy will get lower because the penny it’s getting expensive than it is worth. If we retire the penny it will stop making a huge and heavy bag/purse. If we kept the penny taxes will go high and many people do not want that. I think we should keep it and pick-up every penny we see in the street and say we are going to have good luck for the rest of the day.
I personaly think we should take the penny out.but in the other hand it is a very usefull item we use for payng our stuff...and that all i could think ....for now.
Keep the penny it is useful for using them when when you buy something or to keep or to start a colletion like from old to new.
I agree with retiring the penny. It’s totally a waste of time and money. The government is wasting lost of their time and money in a penny. When there are more problems that have to be solved and have more importance than the penny. The pennies are a waste of time in the fact that like if you where standing in a line and the person in front of you would be looking for a dollar how irritating will that be just to be standing there until she found a penny. But if the penny waste retire then when they would tell you its some 54 cents what would you do just give an extra penny and every cent in the U.S. counts because they work for it. The U.S will work even faster in their stores and in more places. I go for RETIRE the penny!!! because i don't like it!!!♥♥♥
I think that the penny. Where I stand I think that it should stay as money because. As long as u can use it it should stay as money because you would be taken a big part of our history a way by taken a way the penny and so what if it takes too long to count because all we have is time. so I think we shoul still use the penny to payy for our stuff.
I think we should keep the penny because it is a part of some really great memories. Like when you throw a penny into a wishing well, and a penny is a good coin to do a coin toss with. Some problems people think there are isn't even that bad, like the problem where the person in front of you can't find a penny. Well, the take-a-penny leave-a-penny thing should come in handy then. Another problem is that it costs more than a penny to make a penny. It doesn't seem like that is effecting us now. Yes, the prices now are skyhigh but its not all because of some pennies. If this changes in the next couple of years then maybe i'll change my mind but for now i'd like to keep Abraham Lincoln's penny.
OK. WEll i THiNK tHAt WE SHOULD kEEP tHE PENNy BECAUSE iT WOULD BE LiKE tAKiNG A PARt Of HiSTORy OUt OF ALL tHE PEOPLE WHO kNOW AND USE tHE PENNy. AND AlSO i THiNK tHAt WE SHOULDNt HAVE tO jUSt USE tHE PENNy AS MUCH AS WE NORMALLy WOUlD, WE SHOUlD jUST BE ABlE tO USE iT WHENEVER WE WANtED tO BECAUSE i kNOW tHAt tHEy CANt MAKE US NOt USE iT BUt STiLL.
I don’t mean to come off sarcastic right off the bat but to be technically correct; the U.S. Mint does not make pennies. They make a one cent coin. Anyway, I think the “penny” has outlived its usefulness. It makes no economic sense to make something that costs more to produce than its worth. No sound business would be able to survive doing that. Only a government can afford to run deficits.
For you environmentalists, think about all the zinc that will be saved not to mention the energy we’ll save by no longer having to mine the stuff in mass quantities.
Yeah, it’ll result in the loss of jobs to some folks but I have a recommendation that could make all parties happy. Why not make a 2¢ or 3¢ coin and eliminate the 1¢ coin? The U.S. used to have these coins in the 1860’s, why not bring them back? The zinc people are happy as they still get to keep their jobs, the “eliminate the penny” folks are happy the coin is gone, and the economists are satisfied too because it may cost only 1.6¢ to produce a slightly larger coin but still less than the actual face value. The tree-huggers, I’m sorry to say are still probably unhappy as the zinc mining industry will continue to wreak environmental damage (their opinion, not necessarily mine).
This “penny” to a 2¢ coin to the 3¢ coin transition will afford a gradual progression to their elimination. Unfortunately, it is something that must happen for economic reasons such as Australia has understood by discontinuing their 1¢ and 2¢ coins in 1991.
According to Wikipedia, there was a proposal for a U.S. 2¢ coin in the 1970’s but nothing came of it. I believe it is time to revisit this idea!
i think that the penny should stay because no matter how small the value it is still worth something!!! just because not that many people may seem to use it, doesn't mean that it wont be used anymore! anyone person can use 1 cent or 2 every once and a while!
I think that we shouldn't retire it because whether you like it or not, the penny can actually be very useful.
Excellent story on the possible fate of the 1-cent coin here. There is a link within the story that gives the history of the coin as well. Enjoy!
Mod
Thank you for the link.
Vinnie Harris
I just saw this in the Kiplinger Letter recently (so it looks like the one-cent coin will stay).With prices of copper, zinc and nickel going through the roof... Uncle Sam will begin making pennies and nickels from steel, as soon as Congress gives the OK later this year. Though also pricey,steel is still nowhere near as expensive as the other metals.
Clad in alloy, the new coins will look and feel the same as they do now.
The switch will save the government about $100 million a year. Copper and nickel have risen 300%...zinc, 450%...since 2003. At present,
it costs 1.26¢ to produce each penny and 7.7¢ to turn out a nickel. The dime, which costs 4¢ to make, and the quarter, 10¢, will stay as-is.
Steel pennies are not new, though. They were produced temporarily during World War II to free up the other metals for the war effort.
Fulmore students are great!