A modest proposal

If the president asks for my opinion on how to solve the national debt, I will suggest we eliminate the penny. At the bottom of my pocketbook there are always lots of pennies when I am looking for a quarter for the parking meter. But beyond that personal annoyance, a penny costs more to make in metals and manufacturing costs than it's worth-I've read estimates from 1.4 cents to 8 cents.

Neither does the penny do its part to help with the national obesity problem, as it did back when I was a kid. We all picked up pennies we saw on the ground back in the 50s. And none of us were fat. Which proves my theory. Look at the health problems we have nowadays because pennies are not worth stooping for anymore.

One of my biggest gripes with the penny is the way it has been enlisted to perpetrate deception on the American public. Pears are a dollar and ninety-nine cents a pound, not two dollars. That is an insult to our intelligence, which no one in a democracy should put up with.

Finally, once it is realized that the value of the copper in a penny exceeds the coin's face value, the idea is encouraged that one might melt a cauldron of them in one's basement. Since coin melters can spend up to five years in prison, an already overburdened legal system will be taxed. For this and other reasons, my proposed solution to the current economic crisis is to recall the penny. It's a homely coin anyway.

Thank you for your consideration.

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