I find it absolutely fascinating that we still mint pennies. And by "fascinating" I mean "incredibly stupid", just in case you thought I was being pleasant for once. Basically, pennies are completely worthless at this point, and are apparently only still being printed to annoy people. See, we all know by now that pennies are actually worth less money than the copper they're made with, right? Now, that's one of those "random facts" that basically everyone knows by now, but most people just think "Oh, that's kind of funny" and forget about it. Unfortunately, I am not most people. This little piece of information really, really bugs me, and honestly, it's not that hard to see why.
You see, money has no inherent value. The entire economy is based around the fact that since we all AGREE that money is worth something, it is. So pennies do not, objectively, serve any sort of purpose. Now, since one cent is basically worth absolutely nothing at this point in inflation, and they are worth less than their components, and nobody WANTS them in the first place, we are essentially continuing to print something that has no worth whatsoever. Pennies are pointless. They do not deserve to exist. They're a waste of resources, time, and labor. And they smell weird.
This is almost completely unrelated, but probably wouldn't fill up a whole post, so I gotta ask. Why the hell are dimes smaller than pennies and nickels? That has been bugging me since I was like five. I bet there's a really stupid, obvious answer too. I'd love to hear it.
Money may not have inherent value, but neither does anything else on the planet. Why should diamonds be more valuable than common rocks? Just because they're more rare shouldn't mean they're of greater value, and yet they are.
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