It’s time for the penny to drop
I was reminded of my ongoing frustration regarding the Canadian penny yesterday. The latest edition of Maclean’s showed up at the office, featuring “99 Really Stupid Things the Government Did with Your Money”. Number 55 on the list was the Canadian Penny. It continues to baffle me that we persist with the production and circulation of the penny. As Maclean’s reminded me, the penny actually costs around 1.5 cents to make and the Royal Canadian Mint spent $7.3 million to make 486 million pennies last year.
Seriously! Why don’t we put a stop to the production of the penny, we pulled the paper dollar out of production. We all know where these 486 million pennies go, and why the Mint has to keep making more. It’s not like millions of teenage boys are out there defacing the currency on railroad tracks. No, they go from our pockets and wallets into a jar, where they languish. As a small business owner – who deals with cash – I think we probably have 50 – 100 lbs of pennies just sitting in a drawer. I don’t want to roll them!
I know, I know; if we don’t keep the penny, then how will stores be able to offer their “special deals” of $19.99 to all of us savvy shoppers? I think it is time to drop the penny into the history books. Can’t we just charge $20 for that special sale item, or if it has to be below that magical psychological barrier, $19.95! I for one want to see the little copper coin relegated to some deep dark vault in Ottawa, or better yet, let’s melt them down and do something useful with all that metal.
A good day to begin.
I have been thinking about starting this blog for quite a while now. And despite the day’s events, today is as good a day as any to begin this new blog. Some people make resolutions, diet, exercise, focus – don’t get me wrong, all of which are worthy of my own pursuit. However, my mind has been drawn to a place to converse, communicate, pontificate, and write whatever else I might fancy. I am not a pundit, nor a philosopher, but as anyone who knows me can attest, I definitely have some strong opinions. So this will be my outlet, my venue to vent, plead, poke, and write about the lack of passion, the general absence of purpose, and the seeming meandering journey (without a plan) that so many of us on this planet seem to be on.
Today was an interesting day. At home in Canada, there was a historic summit between the chiefs of the First Nations in our land and the Prime Minister and his cabinet. In the land to the South, President Obama gave his State of the Union address. Both events, were I think, defining moments in each country’s path forward.
President Obama, essentially declared war on the elite in the United States. It sounds a bit ironic, but from my vantage point, it is what he did. There is no denying that the growing divide between the rich and the poor (or the middle class for that matter) is widening in America. Tonight, the President essentially worked at gathering the growing angry mob, which is the middle class, in a fight against the rest of the United States (2% of the population) namely those who are rich. I think that this was undoubtedly playing politics too, and an unmistakeable shot across the bow of Mr. Romney’s ship, so to speak. And while it is complicated, I think that I agree with the President, at least for the most part. I think that the United States of America is a country in deep trouble. I think that this trouble is due in large part to unmitigated greed; both institutional, and individual greed. It is the American dream gone haywire. It is the pursuit of wealth and influence without the guidance of responsibility and civility. Four years ago, I predicted that Mr. Obama would win the White House for a single term, and then be ousted. I predicted a one-term presidency as I did not think that he could withstand the pressure or expectations of either his own caucus or the average American. And while I think I was largely correct, I also think that the Republicans have little in the way of anything to offer, which will give Americans the impetus to dethrone Mr. Obama. I could be wrong, but I am beginning to think that I was wrong four years ago, when I predicted a one-term president. Alas, we all must suffer through ten months of nauseating campaigning before this issue is put to bed.
At home, Prime Minister Harper began a most difficult and arduous journey. As one who has worked in the world of First Nations, and has served along side, and at times, against Chief and Councils; the juggernaut of how to solve the issues surrounding Indians and Canada can only be compared to me ascending Mount Everest without the aid of a sherpa or oxygen. The simple reality is that this is a no-win scenario, and one of those precipices from which many have fallen to their political death. The sad truth, despite the CBC’s coverage today, is that most Canadians simply don’t care. Actually that is not true, most Canadians just want to ignore the problem, in the naive hope that it will go away. It won’t. Despite the rhetoric of today, and the talk of amending or working around the Indian Act, the Harper government has a real problem. It has inherited a fiduciary duty to look out for the best interests of the people who are descendants of those who were here before we Europeans arrived. It has as its duty, the arduous task of upholding the promises made by the Crown so long ago. It has a massive mess on its hands; a financial, social, cultural and historical mess. And the truth that no one wants to talk about is that this mess is going to cost Canada plenty; and that this mess should cost Canada plenty. We made treaty, not war.
If anything is going to change, the first task is giving the army of lawyers working for the federal government new marching orders. If today’s rhetoric is going to become even a little less fiction, then the stall and delay tactics – employed by the federal government – need to stop. Things also need to change with the positions of the First Nations too. I have witnessed first hand the stand-offs, the posturing, the meetings with fifteen lawyers around the table – “with only the best interests of their clients in mind” all the while laughing to the bank.
I am rambling now, and I have much to say on this topic. I will write more about it in the coming weeks. I will not claim to be an expert, but I do have some first hand experience, enough to know that it will take courage on everyone’s part to get anywhere close to a solution within my lifetime.
Alas it is late, and time for me to put this Macbook Pro back on the counter. Oh speaking of which, Apple beat the talking heads again today, $46 billion in sales in its first quarter, completely baffling the expectations on Wall Street. Now if only they paid dividends on their shares.
