30 most vicious John Oliver take downs
By Jeremy Dick
14. John Oliver explains why pennies are totally useless
Do you feel as if pennies are more trouble than they’re worth? More and more business are no longer even accepting them, and lugging a bunch of them around is more of a nuisance than anything. Canada has already dropped the penny from the currency, so why hasn’t the United States?
John Oliver agrees, and talks about the problems with the copper coins on Last Week Tonight. First of all, it costs 1.7 cents to make just one penny. Start multiplying that by the millions, and you’ll see how much money the United States is losing just to keep printing these things. That’s not good considering most people will just leave them on the ground if they ever walk by and see one.
One amusing roadblock to removing the penny from circulation is the lobbying from Abraham Lincoln enthusiasts. They argue that keeping the penny keeps Lincoln’s memory in tact, but as Oliver points out, he’s still on the five dollar bill. “You know, the thing that’s worth 500 times more than the penny,” as he put it.
Closing out the segment, Oliver mentions that we can’t get rid of things like terrorism and herpes. But we can get rid of all of those damn pennies, so we really should.
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