Over the five weeks that I've been riding my bike everywhere I possibly can, I've picked up over thirty pennies. I have ridden past a few more for safety or laziness.
One day I commented to my wife, "I'm not complaining, but wouldn't it be nice to find a quarter?" The next day, we were riding together and she shouted back to me, "There's a quarter!" I stopped and picked it up. Naturally, I said, "I'm not complaining, but it would be really nice to find a five dollar bill."
A couple of observations. Coinage gets really chewed up on the pavement. Also, what's with the predominance of pennies on the ground? I think I found a dime once in addition to the quarter, but that's still about 94% pennies.
Has inflation made Ben Franklin irrelevant? I'm not talking about "benjamins"; those still seem to be quite relevant. What happened to "a penny saved is a penny earned"?
Since I want to foolishly believe that our culture is more frugal and intelligent than it is, I've developed a theory: Kids are dreaming big these days. There aren't enough fountains or wishing wells around, so they've decided, "The world is my wishing well." (Not that kids these days know what that is.)
Seriously, I don't think adults are just dumping pennies out the window. (Twice I found bunches of ten pennies in intersections.) I'm pretty sure parents give kids in car seats some pennies to play with. On moderate summer days, the windows are open. What's a kid gonna do? What comes naturally: Chuck pennies out the window.
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3 comments:
au contraire... I throw pennies out. They are next to worthless and not worth the effort of carrying around. If I don't have a handy place to put them almost immediately I either leave them at the counter, or on the ground.
Ha! Perhaps my thesis merely demonstrates you are a child at heart. :) Well, if you really suffer from penny antipathy, maybe you could send them our way, or just write a check . . . Our penny acquisitiveness has to do with a (very) tight budget, but I suppose it wouldn't hurt to continue to be frugal when the money starts to roll in.
To illustrate your point, I remember back in the '80s there was talk of doubling the value of the penny. My brother and I thought it was a cool idea, because pennies were becoming worth less, and because our grandma had about 75 dollars in pennies in a couple of milk jugs. Of course retailers opposed the measure because they were worried about losing a ha'penny to rounding (in the new economy; a full penny in the old). Alas, not very worthy pennies. BTW, I have found two dimes on the road in the last three days. Movin' on up!
I know that I still value quarters, but if I dropped a dime or nickel accidentally I'm not sure that I would even bother to look for it. Not that this happens all of the time though.
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