Does it Make Cents?

EQ: Should the United States abolish the penny?

Should the United States abolish the penny?

Why Doesn’t the United States (Finally) Get Rid of the Penny

(New York Times)

First, number the paragraphs.

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Then, complete a dry read of the article.

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Next, highlight the pro-argument statements in yellow and anti-argument statements in red.

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Finally, take notes on the right of any key points, questions you still have, or any other relevant information.

Should We Make Cents?

(60 Minutes)

Will the Penny Survive the Coronavirus? Some Hope Not.

(New York Times)

First, number the paragraphs.

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Then, complete a dry read of the article.

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Next, highlight the pro-argument statements in yellow and anti-argument statements in red.

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Finally, take notes on the right of any key points, questions you still have, or any other relevant information.

Should the United States abolish the penny?

Summarize: Should the United States abolish the penny? Your paragraph response should state your opinion and use factual evidence to support your opinion.

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Post: Copy and paste your paragraph response to the Padlet: https://rockfordhigh.padlet.org/MrsMatheson/AbolishPenny

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Respond: Respond to two classmates on the Padlet. Use any of the academic language scripts, or create your own, to begin your response:

• You bring up an interesting point, and I believe…
• I see it another way, I think…
• You said ____, but I think...

Does it Make Cents?

EQ: Should the United States abolish the penny?

Pro-Penny Arguments

• Prices will increase. If the U.S eliminates the penny, merchants will round the price up to the nearest five cents. They will probably round everything up in their favor, costing us more for everything we buy.
• The poor pay the most. A corollary to the above argument says that the poor will be affected the most because the poor are most likely to make more frequent, smaller purchases, thus suffering the rounding up more often.
• Charities need pennies. Many small charities depend on penny drives to bring in donations. People think nothing of pouring out their old penny jars to support these drives, but they won't part with nickels so easily.

Pro-Penny Arguments (Continued)

• Nickels cost even more to make. If we eliminate the penny, we will need more nickels in circulation. Nickels cost 6.23 cents to make, (1.23 cents over face value, as opposed to 0.66 cents over face value to make a penny,) so making each nickel costs 0.57 cents more than making each penny. Since the penny costs 0.26 more than face value to make, the Mint can make 5 pennies and still lose less money than making one nickel. And, of course, if we eliminate the penny, we'll need a lot more nickels, which will offset the savings of stopping penny manufacture.

Pro-Penny Arguments (Continued)

• Pennies are sentimental. The fact is that Americans love their pennies and hate to change things. We've always had pennies and therefore always should have pennies, according to this thinking. This type of thinking uses the same logic that rejects eliminating the paper dollar in favor of a much more cost-effective coin. Additionally, the same logic rejected the adaptation of the metric system in the United States despite the fact that virtually the entire rest of the world uses it. Americans are traditionalists, and the Lincoln Cent is the epitome of modern day circulating coin tradition.

Con-Penny Arguments

• Making pennies wastes taxpayer money. It costs the U.S. Mint 1.66 cents to make each one-cent coins, meaning that taxpayers are losing 0.66 of a cent for each one of the 9.1 billion pennies the Mint produces each year. That is a loss of $60,181,440 to produce pennies in 2016.
• Making pennies wastes time. The U.S. Mint makes an average of 21 million pennies per day to produce its nine billion pennies annually. If we just get rid of the penny, the U.S. Mint would only have to do half the work. This figure does not include the time, fuel, expense, and hassle of carting all of those pennies around to the banks, merchants, etc. If we stop making pennies in the first place, we save all this associated time and trouble, too.

Con-Penny Arguments (Continued)

• Trending Worldwide. The value of the penny has been dropping for years. In 2006, it began to cost more than a penny to make a penny. It now costs 2₵ to produce a 1₵ coin. Many countries have stopped using pennies. Canada, which has a currency similar to the U.S., has ended penny circulation in 2013. In recent years, Australia, Brazil, and other nations have eliminated their least valuable coins.

Con-Penny Arguments (Continued)

• Pennies Cost us Time. Some business owners say rounding cash purchases to the nearest nickel would save time for workers and customers. According to the group Citizens to Retire the U.S. Penny, the average American spends at least 2.4 hours every year counting and sorting pennies for change—or waiting for others to do so. Many people find pennies so annoying that they leave them at the cash register for the next customer.