The following is a letter to the editor from Rhino Times reader Austin Morris
Abolishing the Penny seems like a good idea at first blush, but there would be two negative consequences.
Without the ability to make exact change in cash, merchants will inevitably start folding sales tax into the listed price, rather than adding it to the price. So a $10.00 item will come to be priced at $10.70 (incl. tax) on shelves.
I’ve seen this before. When VAT (Value Added Tax, a variant of sales tax) was introduced in the UK, many stores initially quoted their prices as “plus VAT”, so the VAT was added to the transaction at the end, as we do here. But ultimately they all folded the tax into the price, for the sake of clarity and simplicity. That’s what will happen when the US penny is taken out of circulation. This provides cover for government to hike sales tax without paying a political price. So, if Skip Alston or the Greensboro Transit Authority succeed in jacking up our Sales Tax to 10% (for the sake of argument), then the price of our $10.00 item would rise from $10.68 or $10.70 to $11.00. Because the tax has become invisible to the consumer, the merchant is always blamed for the price hike. There’s nothing Leftists like better than tax hikes that cause them no heat. That is how the UK’s VAT – once 8% – got to its current 20%.
Additionally, the inability to receive full and correct change in transactions will nudge people more and more to use plastic rather than cash. The Leftists, the Globalists, the statists and all other closet totalitarians are determined to eliminate cash. They can’t monitor or control cash like they can with funds that go through banks. Canada’s PM Justin Trudeau infamously froze the bank accounts and cards of the truckers who dared to protest his policies. If that isn’t a warning about the totalitarianism of a cashless society, what is? In a nutshell :
CASH = PRIVACY + FREEDOM
CARDS = SURVEILLANCE + CONTROL.
We must protect our right to use cash as legal tender, or a huge part of our liberty will be lost.
Yes, it costs 3 cents to make a penny coin and the government loses money on each one produced.
Don’t worry – they make it up on the Benjamins.
Keep our pennies. Keep our cash.
Austin Morris
right on!
Cheers!
Our Banks & the federal Government have been pushing us to an all electronic cash economy for some time now. Don’t expect that to change, the Banks make too much in merchant fees. As for coin currency, we’ve been loosing money on the penny for many years. Given how few transactions are in cash these days, loosing the penny would be a prudent decision the Congress could make. It would also open up another currency cost savings, abolish the 1dollar bill (which must be replaced annually, at significant cost to produce) and allow the $1dollar coin (which last 10 years in circulation) to be the new norm. Don’t like a lot of coins in your pocket, don’t forget the $2 bill. After all, how many things these days cost only 1 dollar.
I think you are being shortsighted. The argument that the cost of producing the penny is worth getting rid of it. Please read the essay at least one more time. Trump is not proposing this to save the govt. money –though that’s what he wants people to believe. By the way, I’ve already seen the nickel is next. It’s all about more control over YOUR spending. Use cash as long as you can. When that is gone, then you’ll see. Talk with your legislators, both state and federal. They need to hear from the people how wrong this is.
Do away with the penny, and a big thank you to President Trump and Elon Musk.
I support Trump and Musk enthusiastically, but the fallout from abolishing the penny might not have been fully considered.
Thanks for the input though.
Lack of foresight by President Musk-Trump is kinda his jam.
…. but President Biden was a prescient genius.
Biden was prop that kept Trump from office for years. His changing his mind to rub again allowed Trump back in power sadly as clearly Harris was not the right candidate.
But at least Biden had a plan and delivered on most of it. Trump just lies and keeps moving the goal post with bait and switch….for example his hollow promise to reduce prices ‘day 1 of his administration’ because maga hat folks are to ignorant to realize how hollow such a promise really was. MAGA are just suckers who beleive the BS while being fleeced.
It’s not like pennies are being used up. Most of them sit in piggy banks and jars and car consoles. They eventually get rounded up and taken to the bank or used. They could just print one batch of pennies every few years based upon need. Problem solved.
Canada eliminated the penny in 2013; cash transactions were rounded to the nearest five cents based on the “total” amount of the transaction, not on each item. It’s been reported by many Canadians that their experience is that the actual cost of the switch is so insignificant that it’s almost as if it didn’t happen.
Thanks for that info, but it’s not any effect on prices that worries me.
Keep the penny. It has historical and memory value, as well as economic value for consumers who understand saving, freedom, and privacy. Resist.
Austin, am I incorrect in saying the real answer is a flat tax?
I think that’s a different issue.
Why not make them out of only zinc as we did in WWII? Or why not retrieve all those cookie jar contents out there by offering 1.00 for a 50 cent roll. Sounds like a good Boy Scout project… No
Pennies need to go! Your closing comment seals the deal……costs 3 cents to make one penny! Inefficiency needs to go throughout our government. And no, not having pennies will not cause people to use plastic……people increasingly use plastic today for other reasons…..convenience and material benefits…….and pennies are still around. Travel the world and you will learn that many nations “round up” or “round down” with their currencies…many nations do not use coinage. Time for the penny to go but not Lincoln…….we need to find a place for his greatness!
* My final sentiment agrees that the govt. loses 2 cents on each penny, but reminds you that it makes a ton of money making $100 bills (and the rest of currency). I’d gladly be in the money making business, even if I lost a tiny amount on pennies.
* It’s the ramifications that worry me (and should worry you). Abolishing the coin will incentivize tax-inclusive pricing, which invariably leads to higher and higher Sales Tax. I provided the UK as a good example.
* Cash usage has been in gradual decline. Another commenter noted the push of banks to get everyone debit cards. The banks skim FOUR PERCENT off my business in every plastic transaction. With cash, they get zero. Not only big business wants to eliminate cash, big government does too. They can then track your every Dollar, received and spent. It is a totalitarian’s dream. A cashless society is a totalitarian society.
* I wouldn’t eulogize Lincoln if I were you. This is The South.
Trump is not going to recall pennies. He is suggesting not making any more (for the time being). Good grief people, pennies are every where, I usually find a few on the ground in a parking lot. More pressing problems need attention!
I understand your concern about a centralized banking system, and Mr. Morris, I share your concerns. But I’m not sure dropping the penny will lead us down that road.
I hope you’re right and I’m wrong. Cheers!
A common sense thought…….salt flavours things and you did.
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This was an interesting and well mannered debate. Several commenters provided info. and insights that were new and worthwhile. This is how debates should be.
The guy who pollutes these columns with his vitriolic rudeness only commented twice, but he still managed to insult us all as “ignorant” and “suckers” (along with a pro-forma insult of the President). That’s just the kind of people Leftists are, for the most part.