Money

I lifted this from Greg Easterbrook. 

Eliminate the Dime, Too: The U.S. Treasury is seeking to save $100 million per year by removing nickel from the nickel; nickel lobbyists are fighting this in Congress. The International Zinc Association is lobbying to maintain the existence of the penny, which is mostly zinc. If the United States, at a time of record mega-deficits, can't even get rid of pennies because members of Congress fear the loss of donations from the zinc lobby, how will fiscal sense ever be established?

The quarter is the smallest unit of currency that bears meaning in modern society: pennies, nickels and dimes merely clog the national pocket, at a cost to taxpayers. Pennies mean so little they possess negative value: we should bury them in landfills! Instead, the Mint is subsidized with tax dollars to produce more of a worthless item, in order to avoid offending interest groups. Isn't this modern government waste in a nutshell?

As noted by many readers, including Deirdre O'Connell of Toronto, Canada has eliminated both the penny and the dollar bill. The dollar, the most-exchanged unit of currency, in Canada is a coin, which saves mint money by lasting longer than a paper dollar. When the United States trails Canada in anything, even sensible currency, it's time to act.