So I thought I would alternate between the real estate mini series and regular posts, just so you don’t get too tired of real estate. You should also note that the following post is fairly radical in thinking and is not completely applicable.

Often people talk about how the penny should be abolished. And there are many legitimate reasons of why this should be done. Such as the fact it can no longer purchase anything by itself, or the fact that nearly two thirds of them drop out of circulation immediately not to mention the fact that they are literally not worth the time. I 100% agree with this, pennies are just not worth the amount of space they take up.

Why stop at pennies? Why not get rid of the whole lot? It will save on resources and it is not as though the pieces of paper and metal hold much value outside of their representation.

I in fact hate using cash, it weighs down my wallet/pocket, makes annoying sounds and is a pain to fish out. Now much of this applies to coins/change but 95% of the time when I use a bill I’m going to get coins back. I’d much rather use a debit card and/or credit card for all my purchases. Its fast, its simple and its track able (it is always nice to look back and see where you actually spent your money).

Since our money is no longer directed backed by gold, going 100% digital only seems the next logical step. So why don’t we do it? I don’t have a complete answer for this but I did come up with some reasons:

• It would be hard to force all businesses to install/accept credit cards/debit cards.
• People enjoy having money tangible
• The tradition of having something physical
• Transaction fees would need to become subsidized
• There would likely be an increase in identity theft criminal activity
• Traveling to developing nations or just other nations in general would create its own problems

There are still many barriers preventing this from actually happening, but it is still interesting to consider the idea and that is why I propose the idea. Plus if this makes the penny go away sooner I’ll be ever so grateful

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Filed under: Misc.