Eliminate Money to Save Money?

Coin collectors across the country will cringe today as the last Canadian penny will be minted.

The Conservative Canadian government decided five weeks ago to eliminate the production of the penny at a savings to tax payers of $11 Million dollars! The explanation was simple; it costs around 1.5 cents to make the 1 cent coin.  So why wasn’t this done YEARS ago?

One has to wonder how the government of our country can spend so much on a coin that has long been lost couch cushions, used as betting chips, and tossed into wishing wells.  I mean, if it costs that much to produce the penny, how much are we spending on making the nickel, dime, quarter, and all currency for that matter!

How often to do pay for anything with cash? To be fair, there are many places that you HAVE to pay with cash (some local businesses, fairs, and markets for example), but whenever possible do we not, for the most part, pay for goods with either a credit card or debit card?

So why don’t we just get rid of the majority of money and go completely to plastic? 

Some people are afraid that without the penny (and all currency for that matter), items will cost more and we will eventually be unable to afford them.  This can all be fixed by using plastic.  The money you get paid from your job goes into your bank account without any actual cash being handled whether you get paid directly or by check, so why can the same principle work for purchasing items?  An uneven dollar amount comes out of your bank account and the cost of the product doesn’t go up!

Other people are concerned that without cash, how can you pay the young kid who mows your lawn or shovels your driveway.  The answer is simple.  Cash money will still exist.  We should just stop MAKING it.  Leave all of the hundreds of thousands of coins and bills in circulation until they are unrecognizable and then take them out.  I’m sure it will take CENTURIES before all the cash money is gone!  And by then, who know what kind of world we will live in, we might have switched back to the barter system!

Now maybe this plan is in the works and I’m just years ahead of myself, but to me, it just makes sense to stop production on all of our currency and then maybe our government wouldn’t be so cash-strapped.

What do you think?