Americans care so little about it that a few admit to actually throwing them in the garbage. Pennies cost more to make than they’re worth and oftentimes passersby won’t even slow their step if they see a bunch of them on the street. To document Americans’ disinterest in the coin, a few years back a NY local news channel dumped 150 pennies on the ground and over the course of 25 minutes, no one bothered to pick a single one up.
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Other countries have done away with the penny and survived, and Oliver thinks the USA should, too. It took officials nearly four hours to count out all 11,000 coins.
“John Oliver’s Passionate Plea to Get Rid of the Penny” is categorized as “life and leisure”. “But the penny is a nuisance we can actually do something about”.
Oliver had one final suggestion after speaking about the House’s desire to add stricter rules to the vetting process: “At this point why don’t we just include a pie eating contest, a spelling bee and an evening wear portion?”
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John Oliver typically tackles dark and troubling topics on Last Week Tonight, but last night’s all-new episode of the HBO series proved to be a somewhat lighter affair, as Oliver took on the problem with pennies in America.
