Is it time to get rid of the penny?

Keep the penny!  Not all one cent coins are the same.  Every Lincoln and wheat back penny made from 1982 and earlier contains 95% copper.  With copper around 4 dollars a pound that means about 145 copper pennies is about 4 dollars!. 

The real fraud however is when all precious and semi precious metals were removed from US coins.  Every US coin with the exception of the nickel and penny, prior to 1965 contains 90% silver.  Think about it, a pre-1965 Roosevelt dime has almost 3 dollars in silver value as of today!  The point is that our coinage used to have real metal value; it wasn't the denomination on the coin that created the value but rather what the coin contained that gave it value. 

This is why some one such as Dr. Ron Paul is a good choice for our next president.  He understands how the Fed Reserve has systematically hoodwinked Americans by forcing the removal of all precious metals from our currency and is campaigning to end the Fed.  Why should Americans pay a private bank with many foreign owners to create and circulate our money?  Our US dollars, fiat currency, is backed by nothing but trust and god.  Why did the US have over 4 billion ounces of silver in 1959 in the strategic stockpile and as of today they-we have none?

This article mentions the elimation of the half cent?  If you consider since the founding of the Fed. Reserve in 1913, the purchasing power of the dollar to today has depreciated 96%.  What a dollar used to buy in 1913 will buy you about .04 cents today!  This is the true crime of the Fed. Reserve in that they steal your money through inflation.  For a Keynesian based economy even Mr. Keynes had something to say about inflation:

"The best way to destroy the capitalist system is to debauch the currency. By a continuing process of inflation governments can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens. "- John Maynard Keynes

It is actually incredibly easy and simple for our govt. to solve all of our debt and spending problems.  As Americans all we have to do is force Congress to pass a bill where if spending exceeds 3% of GDP, then any standing member of Congress would become ineligible for re-election.

If the mint retired the half cent over 150 years ago, and inflation has reduced the value of 1 cent to 1/20 of what it was worth in 1857, we should get rid of both the penny and the nickel all at once.  Nickels cost the mint more than 5 cents. They are bulky as well.  A dime is now about equal in buying power to what a half cent was in 1857 when it was abolished, so even getting rid of the dime would not be too extreme,  However changing our system to dollars and tenths of dollars instead of dollars and hundredths of dollars makes a lot of CENTS!!  Keep the dime for now, but get rid of the pennies and nickels.

Also the dollar coins will never be accepted unless the government stops printing paper dollars (which makes economic sense since the life span of the coin is 50 times that of the paper).  So stop printing paper dollars, or stop minting dollar coins.  Make a decision!

People, please start thinking pragmatically about this. If you make something and sell it for less than it cost to make, does this make fiduciary sense? Just because some people use the penny as their "savings" or to use as mad-money or school supplies means they could do this with a nickel or dime just as well. I understand times are difficult for a lot of people and for many, use the penny to get by or splurge, but what you are talking about is a behavioral issue, not a financial one. To be smart about money means spending less than you take in and learning to live within your means. The penny DOES NOT fit within these parameters.