Opinion: A penny for your thoughts

Opinion: A penny for your thoughts


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SALT LAKE CITY — President Obama is right! That statement alone just sent chills down the spines of three out of four Utahns. But before fear and loathing really sets in, on this issue he really is right and it's a no-brainer.

He went on to make a very important statement calling the penny, "a good metaphor for some of the larger problems that we've got." Meaning, the government seems to have a very hard time "getting rid of things that don't work so that we can then invest in things that do."

Protecting obsolescence and refusing to change, what could possibly go wrong in a government or any organization that embraces that policy? Well, we're seeing its effects everywhere. But, let's get back to the penny.

It is painfully obvious that the good old penny's time has come and gone. Just the act of minting the one cent piece makes no sense at all. Even after the switch from copper to zinc with copper plating back in 1982, the little disc still costs 2.41 cents to produce. How in the world does that make any sense?

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Still, just mention doing away with the penny and the weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth begins. What causes us to cling to such obsolescence? Is it nostalgia? Is it fear that the economy as we know it will collapse? Is it concern that in the very short term merchants will round their prices up to the nearest five-cent benchmark? Or is it the numismatic dread that your Lincoln Penny set will come to an ignominious end?

It might calm us all down to realize that we've been through this before. Our great-great grandparents had to let go of the half-cent and the world didn't collapse. The hay penny simply became irrelevant. Prices had increased and it wasn't practical to continue minting them.

We are way past irrelevant and impractical. Here's a little example: When we baby boomers were growing up, a Tootsie Roll Pop cost 2 or 3 cents. I saw them offered at a convenience store the other day at 5 for one dollar ... and that was a deal! As a matter of fact, many folks won't even bend over to retrieve a dropped penny.

The costs to society of continued use of the one cent piece goes way beyond the price of production. Talk to any banker and they'll tell you the penny is the bane of their existence. The vast majority of merchants support its dignified demise. And, even we numismatists, and I speak with some authority here being a past president of the Utah Numismatic Society, can live without the penny and will fondly and finally conclude our Lincoln collection.

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It's time ... no, it's way past time to make this move. There is even an argument to be made that the nickel's time has come and gone, but that's too much to handle. But think about it, what you once could purchase with a nickel, a small candy bar or small soda pop, now costs at least ten times as much. I know, heads are ready to explode at the mere thought of it.

But back to the president's point. Continuing the minting of the penny does underscore a much bigger problem: if we're not willing to deal with something this obvious and relatively easy to implement, how in the world are we going to be able to make the much more difficult and even painful decisions that loom before us?

Here's the bad news: Congress has to make the decision to do away with the penny and it is the same Congress that will have to tackle the much more important and painful decisions.

Maybe we should remember the time honored sentiment of Benjamin Franklin, "A penny saved is a penny earned." Think of how much money could be saved just from eliminating the minting process, not to mention all of the other costs associated with the impractical maintenance of the one cent piece. It won't solve the nation's economic ills, but it's a symbolic, important step.

But, that's just my opinion.

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Doug Wright

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