Current Connection #5

According to Associated Press, Congress is looking to "do away" with the dollar bill and swtich to dollar coins. In the article Congress looks at doing away with the $1 bill , there is a heated discussion in whether the dollar bill should stay circulated or be taken out and replaced with a dollar coin. The article states, "the Government Accountability Office on the potential savings from switching to dollar coins entirely comes as lawmakers begin exploring new ways for the government to save money by changing the money itself." I disagree with this statement because I do not believe we, the people,  can save money by switching to coins. The coin has to be made with nickle, or copper, or even zinc and obtaining these minereals take time and money to get where they are in our pockets, but then again I can see the coin saving us money because instead of replacing the bill every 5 years this coin can stay in curculation for up to 30 years. This saves the money makers to have to produce more money every few years.

"Rep. Lacy Clay, D-Mo., said men don't like carrying a bunch of coins around in their pocket or in their suits. And Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., said the $1 coins have proved too hard to distinguish from quarters." All that change that we are going to have to carry around would weigh down our clothes by a lot. I would not want to carry around $5 worth of coins in my pocket when I can easily open my wallet and pull out flimsy 5 ones. So I can see where so many coins can be a hassel. Also, I have seen a dollar coin and at a glance this coin is much like the regular quarter so if a product was a dollar and you hand the cashier a quarter u just paid 25 cents for a dollar product. If the coin goes in currculation, Congress needs to find a way to clearly distinguish the difference between a quarter and a dollar coin.

This article reminds me a little about the book I am currently reading, Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata. In this book the main character's parents hate banks so they keep all their money in a bag hidden in their closet. The setting is set in the 1920's where money was hard to get especially because the characters protrayed are Japenese and are shown no respect. So all the money they make takes another meaning to "hard earned". The way money back then was used was a simple dollar went a long way as compared to now where a dollar can't even buy a bottle of soda.

This aritcle makes consumers who use dollar bills think whats going to happen if there are no more dollar bills in currculation and coin collectors might have to save a few of those old one bills so if and when the simple one goes out that little one dollar would be worth about 20 dollars. You know what, venders. I didn't even think of them. Dollar bills jam machines and a coin would save money to have the machine fixed. So many coins coming and going I wonder where we are going to go next in our lifetime.