Damned pennies

Each day when I was growing up, my grandmother put a coin in a small plastic piggy bank that sat on her kitchen counter. It looked somewhat like the one pictured above.

The coins were my college fund. For as long as I can remember, she insisted that I would one day attend college. And this was how she viscerally let know. When the bank was full, I would count out the change and, along with my small black account book, would head to the bank where the coins would be deposited and my balance increase. It was fun seeing the running tally rise over the years. 

By the time I graduated from high school, I had about $600 in the account - no small amount in 1970 when tuition at a state college was about $140 a trimester. I honored my grandmother’s expectations by getting not just a bachelors degree but a couple years later my masters. I was the first in my family to get a college education.

Now Granny did have one rule about adding to the fund each day. The coin deposited had to be silver - it could not be a penny. Even an entire bank full of pennies would not have amounted to much. Even in the 1950s and 60s, pennies were held in low esteem. A penny would buy you a gumball and that was about it.

While I am deeply troubled by nearly every action our current president has taken in his first few weeks in office, one initiative I can get behind is his move to stop the production of pennies which take over 3 ½ cents to make. I could get behind the elimination of nickels as well which cost nearly 14 cents to make.

Even more than the economic foolishness of continuing to make these small coins, they are simply a nuisance. I don’t remember the last time I put a penny or nickel in my pocket instead of the change or tip jar on a counter.

If Trump’s and Musk’s goal is to improve the efficiency and lower the cost of the federal government, I can get behind it. But if your windows leak, you don’t tear down your house; you fix the windows. If bureaucrats lose their jobs, fine. But if humans lose the needed services their departments provide, that’s quite another story. 

Getting rid of pennies is one thing; getting rid of entire programs that serve those in need is something quite different. I will keep looking for bright spots in the news over the next four years but I am not optimistic.