But then I got to thinking about the penny. They don't use pennies here. It's excellent. Pennies are useless, annoying little bits of tin. They insist on edging their way into every amount of change returned to you upon a purchase. They weigh down your pocket, not worth anything at all. With the sense and logic that only seems to exist in a country with a population still in the low tens of millions, Australia has banished the one cent piece. The only change floating around is actually useful. I thought, "gee, America should do this", but then I realized, that's never going to happen. We are the most nostalgic, sentimental group of folks ever (possibly with the exception of the Brits). We won't switch, no matter how much sense (or cents!) it makes. That's also why we're one of only three countries in the world who still hasn't officially adopted the metric system. Yep, just us, Liberia, and Burma (Myanmar), see map. What a trio, eh? Good old Liberia (proceed to look it up on Google Maps, it's actually in Africa). Lord forbid logic and sense pry their way into our red-taped, consumerist lifestyles.
America is great, but for some things, let's face it, we're slow to adapt, difficult to change, and hard to motivate, like Homer Simpson or my cat. Although food is a good motivator for both of them, and probably for most of America too. Ok, my rant is over. Until next time.
2 comments:
I remember in Europe not realizing how much money I was spending (or losing in the seat) as a single coin actually represented mutiple Euros.
Nice map!
That's funny about pennies. Yeah, they're not worth as much now as they were to, say, Abraham Lincoln. I read somewhere recently that the U.S. was considering discontinuing making pennies because they cost more than a penny to make one. That would make sense. They should just go ahead and round things up or down and forget the pennies. I agree. When I play Monopoly, I don't use the $1 bills either. I just round up or down to the nearest $5. They are like the pennies of the game. And it probably costs more than a Monopoly dollar to make a Monopoly dollar!
I also remember about 30 years ago when they told us the U.S. was switching over to the metric system to catch up with the rest of the world. They added metrics to the other side of rulers but never took off the inches. They changed all the liquor bottles from quarts to liters and stopped there. Did they all get drunk and forgot about the "switchover"? That's a funny map. We are in a very select group. Bye cutie. Love and safety!! :)
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