A Penny Saved

Benjamin Franklin is famous for many things, one of which is being the first Postmaster General. And he's also famous for many things he said, one of which is, "a penny saved is a penny earned."

So what would Ben think about the fact that first class postage in the United States dropped two cents, from 49 cents to 47 cents! Two pennies earned must riches beyond Croesus.

I don't know when the decrease took effect. It was obviously some time between when I last bought a coil of 100 Forever stamps, and now. This wouldn't really be a long time. I still use the mail to pay my bills and send the occasionally paper letter of pique to someone in government or business. When I expressed surprise to the women at the post office, I also told her they should put a big sign in the window and make the decrease more widely known. Take a victory lap. She laughed.

The penny is really a somewhat useless coin. It costs the Treasury more to produce a penny than it is worth in face value. But a hundred pennies is still a dollar. And two hundred pennies is $2.00. Thus, I spent $2.00 less on my transaction. By most definitions, I saved. But also according to Ben, I earned. And since I paid cash, there should be no 1099 following me at year's end telling me I earned $2.00. That would really kill the buzz.

Every time the penny comes up for review to be eliminated, it survives. There is surely someone in our government who probably gives an impassioned speech about the value of small things and how their value grows as they are accumulated. You might remember the math problem that said if you were given a penny on the first day, and every day after for a month your aggregate value were to double, you would have an incredible amount of money after 31 days. ($10.7 million) One cent the first day, two cents the second day, four cents the third day, eight cents the fourth day, and so on for a 31 day month. Pretty soon, even before you reached the end of the month, you are talking about real money. And at the end of the month, you'd be looking for a tax haven.

When it comes to the penny, Benjamin had it right. Pennies saved can become Benjamins. And as Puff Daddy reminds us, "it's all about the Benjamins."

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