Patrick Appel notes that Barack Obama is ready to abolish the penny. Good for him.
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The Penny Primary
31 Mar 2008 01:21 pm
Comments (10)
Kill the penny! And why not make another dollar coin and put Lincoln on it? If he's on it, people might use it.
Abe is already on the $5
What this country needs is a seven-cent nickel. If that works out, we can give the eight-cent nickel a try. Think what that would mean. You could go to the newstand, buy a three-cent newspaper, and get the same nickel back. One nickel, carefully used, could last a family a lifetime.
Done. He has my vote.
I spent a year living in Taiwan where the smallest denomination of currency was the NT dollar, which was a small copper coin worth about 4 cents. This was back in 1993, so in constant dollars that would probably be about 6 or 7 of today's cents. Regardless, people seemed to get along just fine conducting transactions that could never be divided up smaller than 4 cents.
I think one thing that helped, actually, was that there was no after the fact sales tax tacked on to purchases. Part of any deal to get rid of the penny in the US should be a deal to include all sales tax in the listed price of all merchandise instead of adding it on at the register.
Press release from the Clinton campaign: "Obama steals candy from babies' mouths. Plan will raise price of penny candy by 400%."
It's just internal state politics. Lincoln was an Illinois Republican. Obama is an Illinois Democrat, even more he's a Chicago Democrat.
If there were a penny with Judy Topinka or Jim Thompson's face on it, he'd have abolished that thing years ago.
My recollection is that the entire thing was widely considered to be impossible while the Speaker of the House hailed from Illinois.
Anyway, Obama says he's fine with it so long as there is another place for Lincoln. New dollar coin, maybe?
Shoot, I just wasted several pennies worth of time making this post.
Comments closed April 14, 2008.
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Heads in the Sand
I thought the Illinois delegation traditionally were the first line of defense for the penny, because it has Lincoln on it?
I know they'd still be covered with the $5 bill, but last time there was serious penny debate I heard that the suggestion was being strongly opposed by the Illinois delegation.
Posted by Warren Terra | March 31, 2008 1:26 PM