Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Glenn Beck and the penny

Did anyone catch Glenn Beck's premiere TV show on Headline News last night? I only caught snippets, but from what I saw, it looks funny. Beck's become my favorite talk radio guy even though because of his time slot I rarely get to hear him.

Anywho, last night he closed the show with a spot concerning the penny. It was, in fact, a topic that I've been tossing around in my head for a while, just waiting for the right time to post about it. A day where I didn't really have anything to talk about. A day where there were a lot of other things going on and I could just type something out real quick (like I do anything else but). A day like today.

The premise, his and mine, is that we should get rid of the penny. It makes no sense to have them. It now costs more to make a penny than they're worth. What would be the problem with rounding up or down to the nearest nickel? At most, you'd lose 2 cents a transaction.

When I was stationed in Okinawa, the U.S. banks there stopped shipping in pennies. It cost them too much money to ship them back and forth. They made a huge transition. Every store began rounding up and down to the nearest nickel. And no one missed a beat.

So, kill the penny. But watch Glenn Beck at 9 p.m. EST on Headline News, well worth it.

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