[NOTE: I commandeered/plagiarized/stole the title from The 1440.]
Penny’s cost almost four cents to make. Yet, they’re worth only one cent.
The government lost $85 million last year making pennies. $85 million. A pittance for the government, sure, but for you and me?
And what did you do with them?
You probably left them at the register, or tossed them in a tip jar, or stuffed way down in the console of the car, or even threw them out. About 6.7 million people toss their pennies in the trash. In total, we discard about $62 million in coins each year, with pennies comprising a significant portion of this amount.
And yet, we kept stamping them out. Why?
Nostalgia — The penny feels foundational, plus it’s a tie to times past.
“That’s how they get ya!” — People are concerned about businesses rounding up and having to pay more.
Infrastructure — Pennies are built into the system’s infrastructure. Changing the system is hard.
Politics — Somebody’s gonna spin this as taking away something “the people.” That somebody will tell you a story with a name and a face about how this person is suffering without the penny.
OK, fair enough.
But sometimes you gotta rip the band-aid.
Just because it used to work doesn’t mean it still does. Just because that’s the way we always did it doesn’t mean you still should. Just because one or some people may be worse off doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it anyway.
The hardest part of progress isn’t necessarily building the new. Sometimes, it’s letting go of the old.
