A billion dollars in dollar coins are stacked up in Federal Reserve vaults around the country because Americans don't want them. The dollar coin program has become a waste of money and space. Congress initiated the effort to promote presidential history and to build up interest in dollar coins as substitutes for bills. But the government wildly misjudged demand.Dear Secretary of the Treasury Geithner:
I appreciate the importance of every American pulling together for the common good, and I am pleased to volunteer my efforts with this problem. There are limits to what I can do about this by myself, but I would be pleased to free up vault space for you; just ship me a million or so of those actually quite attractive dollar coins, and I guarantee you won't have to look at them again.
Let me go one better: I'll generously offer to drive to whatever Federal Reserve Bank is most suffering this problem, rent a truck, and haul all these useless dollar coins away for you, free of charge.
I look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
Very Truly Yours,
Clayton E. Cramer
Dear Sect'y Geithner:
ReplyDeleteI'll even pay taxes on the money.
Anthony A.
What's funny is that part of the reason for this is a misplaced patriotism. Exact quote I heard in Washington, D.C. in response to seeing a billboard encouraging the use of these one dollar coins: "They want us to use these fake dollar coins. Well I'm going to use REAL dollars...dollar bills."
ReplyDeleteI didn't have the heart to tell him that the coins are actually the real dollars since they are issued by the government as authorized by the constitution (even if they aren't made of precious metal), while the dollar bills in his pocket are just an IOU issued by a private bank to pay coins upon redemption.
Oh, the irony of the American education system.