Penny Haters - Small Money Matters Big Time!

There is a growing and unmistakable collection of souls who believe their life’s mission in the US economy is to get rid of the penny coin. They seem to believe it is annoying – it results in consumer prices of $2.99, for example – and costly to maintain.

But what gets my goat is when the techno fans jump on this train. Even techno snobs should not be penny haters – virtual money is an incredibly different type of commodity.

The penny, or even an amount much small or a little bigger than this amount, has a great deal of value in the virtual world of monetary exchange. In fact, a case can be made that nearly all of the charitable and socially responsible business objectives of the future can be fueled if we can tap into the flow of cents and sensibilities.

I’ve made this argument on a number of occasions and believe the best example of this can be seen in my suggestion that we get the fast food sector convinced of the wisdom of turning Burgers Against Obesity.

Adding just a nickel by technological default to every purchase of a Super Value Meal, for example, could conceivably generate an estimated 125,000,000 nickels for healthy food change – by the way, that’s a healthy 125 million nickels each and every day of the week.

Not only that: Each nickel can be directed around the profit-taking portions of the money transfer system and be sent instantaneously transferred to those doing food empowerment work. Having a good amount of money on hand when it is needed is more important than having endless supplies of dollars tied up in business activities.

The world of food change can be phenomenally changed itself to the point where it is at the table of new possibilities with a steady stream of the value of the littlest of coins. I believe it is the only way to get the 50% of kids in this nation who are awaiting their serving of Type 2 diabetes out of the line of pending disasters.

I haven’t been very effective yet in pushing this model yet, in part because I know that the timing has to be right for people to jump on board. I’m sure part of the reason is also because the penny haters have a powerful movement – trying to get rid of those pesky little coins out of our lives. But little bytes can have a powerful impact, of that their is no longer a doubt. The true value comes, however, when we learn to turn that potential over to the side of empowerment.

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