act-dog

During the early twentieth century, many goods cost a few pennies or less. Candy lovers could buy a gumball or Tootsie Roll for a penny; moviegoers could watch a reel of a Charlie Chaplin film for a penny or two. Today, though, with the cumulative effects of inflation, the penny has almost zero purchasing power. Think about it: when’s the last time you bought something for a penny? Although many of us harbor fond memories of collecting pennies in¹⁶ a piggy bank,¹⁶ it’s time to do the practical thing: retire the US penny. [ 1 ] Producing and distributing pennies isn’t cheap. [ 2 ] And in that year alone, the Mint made nearly six and a half billion pennies, costing the US over 170 million dollars. [ 3 ] In 2022, the US Mint spent 2.72 cents to put each penny into circulation. 1 Economics professor Robert Whaples cites another problem: the so-called penny tax, which is really a tax on time. When cashiers make change for a cash purchase, they often reach, into the registers’¹⁸ penny trays and count out one to four cents. While the time it takes to do this may seem trivial, each year, billions of cash transactions are¹⁹ made annually.¹⁹ These penny taxes, in aggregate, result in over 120 billion hours when cashiers (and consumers) could be completing more meaningful tasks. Proponents of pennies—often lobbyists for the mining²⁰ of zinc, zinc being the primary component of pennies—²⁰ argue that if the penny were eliminated, consumers would pay more for goods. 5 But in Canada, where the penny was eliminated in 2013, this hasn’t been a problem. Canadian merchants round each cash purchase to the nearest nickel. If a hair comb costs $1.02, consumers pay a dollar. If it costs $1.03, they pay $1.05. Studies have shown that its a wash; overall, consumers pay no more or²² no less then²² they did when the penny was in circulation. Bills for retiring the penny have been floating around Congress for decades. Whether out of nostalgia or fear of change, lawmakers have been disinclined to²³ execute a proposed course of action.²³ But the value of today’s penny is defective.²⁴ By retiring the penny, Congress would cut costs at the US Mint while²⁵ also giving cashiers some time back at work.²⁵