On Eliminating the Penny

When I am wearing my conscientious consumer hat, nothing drives me battier than an item costing $19.99. Am I supposed to take some sort of solace in the idea that I've saved a penny? I just don't have it in me to go around telling everyone I know, 'hey, that cost me less than 20 bucks'!
Sure the penny can be annoying at times, but only because of how it is exploited in sales, but eliminating it would be a slap in the face of American tradition since the penny was the first coin to be authorized for mint and designed by Ben Franklin himself. Paul Revere handed over the copper to be used in the minting process.

I know there is a long list of consumer good hooks that lure you into buying a product, but that 99 cent tail just isn't the best selling gimmick. Although this is a pet peeve I have with sales pitches, it doesn't warrant my desire to see the penny go by the wayside.

Since 1990, Congress has beaten this issue over the head on whether or not to stop the 'copper' circulation. It reared its ugly head once again in 1996 and then again in 2006 after lying dormant for nearly 10 years.

Arizona's representative Jim Kolbe has been the leading anti-penny voice in all these penny killing debates. If the only issue plaguing Mr. Kolbe or Arizona for that matter is burying a Lincoln faced token, I want to go live there. In my native state of Massachusetts, global warming, the war in Iraq, health insurance and immigration bills take center stage. Our State's sales tax is set at 5% on all consumer goods. The only way to eliminate that penny would be to jack that tax to an even number, or 6%. Since so much of the state's revenue is gained through taxes, the government would never even bat an eye to lowering the tax rate just to bury the need for the one cent round.

Kolbe believes that Americans hoard their pennies, forcing millions of new minted pennies to be processed every year. He says there is no value in the penny and wants to step on it. If it's so invaluable, why are we being accused of hoarding? After a little saving in a designated penny jar, a little counting and a little wrapping, those no-values will buy a few gallons of gas in the out of control gas price wars.

Kolbe's proposal will require the cash transactions ending in 1, 2, 6 and 7 cents to be rounded down, while 3, 4, 8 and 9 cent transactions to be rounded up. If you intend to remove the penny itself, then remove the one cent tender rule. In his proposed legislation, all credit card transactions would stay the same and need no rounding. Your credit card bill will reflect a penny balance, but you'll have none to pay your bill with.

Without pennies, charity containers would suffer. In store collection containers for Emergency AIDS Relief alone report $50,000 in yearly collections, mostly in copper rounds. Not a bad figure for something that presumably holds no value.

If we collectively 'hoard' as Kolbe suggests we do, it is ours to do so with. If we've earned it, we have the right to hoard it. I'm not a fan of micromanagement and certainly don't appreciate anyone knocking my penny jar.

Have the Teachers Do It

A parent's responsibilities are to ensure that they are providing shelter, food, clothing, medical needs, and in this country, a fair and reasonable education. A lack in any one of these requirements constitutes neglect. While one can only hope a good moral foundation regarding sexual intimacies would begin at home, often such is not the case.

There are many reasons fueling a parent's decision not to cover basic sex education in the home, and they range anywhere from unease in speaking openly to one's one child about the specifics of sex; to giving up in a state of embarrassment as the child begins to giggle uncontrollably because you said 'penis' or 'vagina'; to assuming that television has already covered the basics so there isn't really a need. You can't assume all parents make this conversation a critical must on their family discussion night.

With this being said, there is no better place to teach adequate sex education than from the same people who are trusted to teach children all the other skills necessary to live an enriching, fulfilling, reasonably educated adulthood.

Sex education not only encompasses the basic motions (for lack of a better word), it also touches on birth control, the success/failure rates of the various methods available, the female cycle and when the most detrimental time to be sure maximum effectiveness of birth control is achieved, pregnancy, sexually transmitted diseases, and the basic anatomy of both males and females.

To further state the argument, condoms are handed out at high schools nationwide, and for the most part, people tend to approve of that. It would be awkward for a teen to attempt to don an item given by the school without the knowledge of how, why and when to depend on them.

In a perfect world, parents would step up to the plate and teach all things moral to their children, and the burden shouldn't fall on the school system to pick up the slack. But since one person's idea of responsibility isn't etched in stone as law, there should be an alternative to carry the burden when there is no other recourse. By the time a teen heads to college, statistics show that the majority have already engaged in sexual activities. It's too late to start a discussion then unless you have the notion that they might be able to teach us all a thing or two.