I have often heard people express disgust at the idea of picking up pennies from the ground. I have never had an attitude of disgust towards the practice. My reasoning for being someone who will gladly pick up pennies (often pennies that others do not wish to pick up) is as follows.
How much time does it take to pick up a penny? If we estimate that it takes 2 seconds to pick up a penny, that means one has earned 1 cent in 2 seconds. Someone working for minimum wage earns 7.25 an hour. If you divide that by 60, you get 12.1 (approximately) cents per minute. They only earn one cent every 5 seconds. To look at it another way, picking up a penny in 2 seconds is the equivalent of 30 cents a minute, or $18 an hour. So if you take the extra 2 seconds it takes to pick up a penny, you are, for those two seconds, earning $18 an hour. Granted, it's only two seconds of work, whereas even a minimum wage job will give you hopefully at least 20 hours a week. But I would imagine you wouldn't slight the idea of earning $18 an hour for at least a small sliver of your life.
So next time you see a penny on the ground, I hope you consider picking it up and earning $18 an hour.
At Kanana they don't stoop to pick up 5c pieces. Yes it is less valuable than a USD 0.01, but many of them are not even earning anything. Is it pride that you don't bend down?
ReplyDeleteIn South Africa picking up 5c pieces would earn you R90 an hour...some people here only earn about that in a day. I'll have to tell Deidre--give her more information for her talks with the kids about the value of money. tx, Ryan : )
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