No More Cents- A Fond Farewell to the Penny

Thus, on November 12, the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia held a small ceremony where the U.S. Treasurer Brandon Beach struck the last penny that would be released into circulation.

Pennies have been a losing deal for twenty years.  Nobody seems to care that they are gone.  Maybe I am just in a bubble.

There has been talk of eliminating pennies for decades, but no politician would bother going up against the zinc lobby and the sentimentalists.   Trump just did it, and it’s done.

The Trump haters will argue that it’s outrageous that King Trump acted too decisively, but it’s a tough argument to make.  If they were rational, they’d just give him the credit.

The government should consider how their actions effect citizens as well as businesses, but they rarely do.  Energy and water conservation rules are often implemented with the assumption that companies will figure out how to squeeze the laws of physics a little harder.

In the case of the penny, companies can figure it out.  We have computers now, so it’s not complicated for brick-and-mortar stores to consider local sales tax to price their products to land on the nearest nickel.  In other cases, post the cash rounding policy and program the registers to apply it.

I know there are people who are furious about anything President Trump does, but the government has many dumb little problems.  There is no good reason to keep minting pennies.  Trump’s opponents will seem more reasonable if they support the positive actions.