Posted on 01/22/2025 12:15:10 PM PST by Olog-hai
Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency is targeting one of the federal government’s most notorious examples of waste: the penny.
Getting rid of the penny would be an early test of DOGE’s influence: Could it help eliminate a piece of government inefficiency that has survived decades of reform attempts?
On Tuesday, DOGE’s account on X highlighted the coin’s mounting costs: In fiscal year 2023, taxpayers spent more than $179 million producing over 4.5 billion pennies, with each coin costing more than three cents to make.
Despite bipartisan recognition of the penny’s costs since at least the 1970s, efforts to phase out or change the coin have repeatedly stalled in Congress, making it an ideal target for DOGE’s efficiency campaign.
Lawmakers were considering the questions as recently as November, when Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, who founded the Senate’s DOGE caucus, said changing the makeup of the coin could save significant money. …
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Or, revalue money so that pennies have value?
Very interesting. Thanks for posting.
If the penny goes away, will prices be rounded up or down to the nearest nickel?
A penny takes 3 cents to make.
That’s bad :)
pennies are good for quite a while.
why not just run them every X years?
Simply punch them out of cardboard with “One Cent” written on both sides.
Old pizza boxes could be the standard.
Yes.
cut all welfare. Not one dime. You don’t get a che k for being blind, you don’t get a check for being homeless, you don’t get a check for being retarded, you don’t get a check for being an immigrant etc. Nothing. Take care of yourself, go to your family or a church.
Keep the penny. Just replace the current materials with recycled materials.
Win-win.
Prices are computed to the nearest penny for electronic transactions (credit/debit cards, for example). Cash transactions are rounded up or down to the nearest $.05.
Penny AND the half-dollar.
stop minting them and let the pennies that are out there ride.
Nickel for your thoughts?
“If the penny goes away, will prices be rounded up or down to the nearest nickel?”
If the idea is to ELIMINATE all paper money. Make Everything electonic, taxable and trackable by local, stat and feds as well as “relevant parties” ..
Then YES.
mr Smith.. this is you MD.. You know your BMI is quite high, and we notice you are buying a lot of Twinkies and Coke. We are going to need to stop those purchases going forward.
They will all end up in the take a penny give a penny jars.
Am I the only one who hates having any loose change around? I put quarters, dimes, and nickels in my car’s console in the off-chance I need it for a random parking meter. But that’s it. I neve carry change around. To be honest, I’ve probably thrown a penny or two in the garbage. I pretty much never have any cash on me either.
NOOOOoooooooooo!
agree
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