So the suggested topic for this week
is corruption in politics. I am not going to talk about it because I do not know
what is going on. You might begin to see a trend that says I am uninformed. That
is because that is the truth. My topic this week is money.
According to an article by Eve
Tahmincioglu, there is a debate going on in Congress on whether or not
Americans should switch over to dollar coins. The main argument for both side
is money, but more specifically, the cost of switching. From Eve's article, America
would lose about 550 million dollars in the first 10 years. The projected
savings from the article are 4.4 billion. To me, that says that for 20 years,
it will save almost 5 billion dollars for America. It seems like that type of
savings would carry over for at least another hundred years or so. How do I feel?
I am for it.
A couple of the arguments I have heard against it is that "I don’t want
to carry around a pocket full of coins all day" and "we already have
1$ coins we don’t use, why make more?" to answer the first one, I traveled
to Australia. While I didn't go specifically to answer this problem, I now have
some background information. Australia
has 1$ and 2$ coins. I never had all that many coins in my pocket and I paid in
cash almost exclusively for about 3 weeks. You shouldn't need more than five
dollars in ones, so carrying 4 coins won't kill you. Australia isn't the only
country with one (whatever is equivalent to a dollar) coins. This article is full of just
some European ones for a start.
The last thing I'll talk about is the fact we already have some. To that I say,
we already have 2$ bills too, but how many have you spent in your life, less
than 5? Why? Because they are reasonably rare and people like
to hold onto them. If we stated to print as many as we do 1$ bills, which I just
realized should be our backup plan if the coins fall through, people would use
them. I say mint them and they will spend.
I really do not see any problem with switching to coin currency. It seems like most people today rely more on their debit and credit cards than cash anyway. Most people do carry around a few dollars most of the time, but they also carry around some change. Since we’re already carrying coins around why not carry around a few dollars in change, especially if it will save America money in the long run? With people making the majority of their purchases with their cards, the switch from bills to coins should not be that much of a life changing alteration.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't have a problem with coin currency. I use my debit or credit card for most of my things anyways. However, it sounds like this switch would be quite costly. I don't think right now is the best time to start this transition. America is in really big debit right now. I think we have more important things to fund like education or the military. I also think we need to figure out what's going on with health care and social security. Eventually this will be a good idea but I think congress should hold out on this bill for a few more years.
ReplyDeleteI think ultimately switching to coins would be a great idea. Overall we would save money, and would not have to create coins as frequently as we do bills. So my question is: do we still have larger bills? If so, I don't honestly see a problem with this plan. I ask this questions, because I am not willing to carry a bunch of coins for what would be equivalent to a piece of paper. Anything that can save America money in the long run should be considered. Even though we will be spending money now, we would save 4.4 billion dollars. It seems worth it to me.
ReplyDeleteI am pro using $1 coins as opposed to bills for the following reasons. For one there is a rampant problem in our society in regards to tipping street performers. It’s nearly impossible to throw a dollar bill into the performer’s guitar case on a windy day and expect it to stay. Coins effectively combat the wind. Second, bills can rip, at times rendering them worthless. Coins are durable against normal wear and tear. On the flip side, too crisp of a dollar gives people paper cuts. And I know every American hates paper cuts. Lastly, bills are extremely testy and cause people to lose their temper. It is a widespread problem in our society for vending machines to reject bills. Who has the time or patience to de-wrinkle a dollar or constantly flip and turn the bill so the machine can accept the dollar? Coins don’t lead to this problem. Coins outweigh bills, literally.
ReplyDeleteI don't see too much of a problem right now besides the fact that there is a considerate cost in switching to coins would worry most Americans. While saving us money in the long run, most Americans want to see change right now. This is one of the problems with our presidency because people expect presidents to be able to change everything in four or eight years. Also, being the considerate person I am, I am thinking of the creepy lonely men who will spend their nights in strip clubs. How is a working girl going to carry around dollar bills is they are changed to coins? And we thought the average dollar bill was unsanitary before. So that's that. I don't disagree with changing to coins but a lot of people are going to riot because they feel inconvenienced and/or the change of saving us money is not happening fast enough.
ReplyDelete