Saturday, August 13, 2011

A Penny Saved


A penny saved used to be a penny earned. Now a penny saved is two pennies wasted. It's time to stop the production of pennies like the country decided to do with the half penny in 1874. It costs more to produce a penny than it is worth.

It took the farmer a whole lot of pennies to save for a gem like the 1950 Oliver diesel in this picture. I can count the new stuff I have bought in a lifetime on two hands.

According to this piece it costs 1.8 cents to produce one penny. That doesn't make to much sense or cents now does it?

I have felt this way for at least 10 years. To me a dollar is about like what a dime was to me as a kid. Inflation probably proves that to be pretty close. I have bemoaned change and pennies for years now, it just doesn't fit my pocket, my lifestyle or our economy. That plastic card has taken over.

One friend posted on facebook to not use your credit card for fast food. McDonald's is liking it that you do. The average patron spent $7.05 in credit when they were going to order $4 worth of food in a survey of buying habits. I got to thinking of the times I have done that myself.

We wonder how we built up all this debt when the bottom line is every one dropped the ball on the way here. I am too frugal sometimes but the government has not been frugal enough.

The USPS didn't even come up in the debt discussions and now the Postmaster wants to eliminate 120,000 jobs to try and keep the post office in business. The whole country has just ran rampant way too long and now we have to get serious about debt.

Eliminating the dear old penny would be a simple solution to a million small problems our country has that adds up to one giant problem: too much debt and robbing Peter to pay Paul!

Ed

2 comments:

  1. Something like producing grain for less than the cost of production? That can't go on too long or we are all in trouble. Maybe its time to drop the penny.

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  2. I don't like phony (non-copper) cents or ugly shields anyway. I'll lament its passing, but maybe you're right about it being time for it to go. I notice that some stores are already giving me back a nickel rather than fool with four pennies.

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