The Absurdity of Pennies: A National Celebration of Worthlessness
Seriously? People paid a premium for pennies? Let that sink in for a moment. We, as a nation, collectively decided that tiny, copper discs – objects previously dismissed as practically useless cluttering pockets and weighing down jars – were suddenly worthy of obsessive collecting and inflated bidding wars. It’s peak American absurdity, isnt it? A testament to how readily we embrace manufactured nostalgia and the allure of limited edition nonsense.
The government stopped making these things! That should have been cause for a national shrug, maybe a collective sigh of relief as vending machines finally got a little lighter. Instead, it triggered a frenzy! Apparently, the fact that fewer pennies exist makes them… valuable? I’m genuinely baffled. Are we so starved for validation that well shell out ridiculous sums to own something demonstrably insignificant?
Don’t get me wrong, markets exist. People can do what they want with their money. But this feels less like a transaction and more like a collective delusion. We chased away the practical utility of the penny – its actual worth – only to replace it with a symbolic one entirely divorced from reality. Congratulations, everyone! You’ve successfully monetized… nothing. Now please, go find something genuinely valuable to obsess over. Like, maybe affordable housing? Just a thought.
