Beyond Belief...

They are going to stop making the penny. Which is a fine idea. Canada got rid of its smaller coins ages ago. Nobody really uses them for anything anymore. They cost more to make than they are worth. A large portion of the population doesn't even use cash anymore. There are a lot of reasons why this is a good idea.

Of course I started thinking about short story ideas. What happens to all of the wishes that were made off of pennies when pennies are deemed not legal tender anymore. (For anyone who has been reading my stuff for a long time, and has a good memory I happen to have a soft spot for wishing, here and here are two stories I've already done about it) But this thought is another one.

What happens when we stop believing in pennies? Do all of those wishes then just disappear? If one came true does it fall apart? It sounds like a whimsical story, a little flight of fancy, but is it?

Because that's all money is. Belief. We have all agreed that money is worth something. But all it is is metal and paper, sometimes less than that. Brent gets paid automatically. Intel sends a number to the bank. The bank adds that number to our bank account. Then we send out numbers to companies that provide us with things or services. Our mortgage, our fucking HOA dues, our power bill, our water bill, our internet, and on an on. There is no real thing that any of us touch. A number comes in, a number goes out. All online. But we've all agreed that those numbers mean something. It's money. So it's valuable.

But we all have to believe together or it doesn't count. It's why the digital coins are so volatile. They all believe they are worth something, but a lot of us, including me, don't. Which I guess I'm wrong because it's worth enough to get a private meeting with the current president of the United States, to get investigations against you thrown out, to get Democrats to vote with Republicans to not legislate against it. So it's worth something. Though I argue that even the people buying it and trading it don't really believe in it, because they tie the worth to how much it equals in dollars. US dollars mostly, though as our currency becomes worth less, or in other words, as more and more people stop believing in it, it might become tied to the Euro, or the Yuan. But for now it's tied to US dollars.

Just not the penny.

Because we stopped believing in the penny. It will no longer be in our loafers, or be good luck to pick up. We will not leave one or take one at the register. Spiteful stories of people paying fines with truckloads of them will no longer be a thing. You won't describe having blood in your mouth as tasting like pennies. We just don't believe in them anymore so they are going away.

It's fine. It's time. They are more trouble than they are worth.

But I still worry about the wishes.