Dropping Pennies

Posted on 2002/09/07 15:35:59 (September 2002) by john.

Not to be confused with spending pennies, of course.

I'm not sure that this article is really going to offer much of an insight into human behaviour, but basically I'm waiting for a download so I'm going to subject you to it regardless.

At the station earlier today, I took out my wallet to retrieve my ticket. There must have been some loose change in there too, as something fell out onto the floor. The guy walking behind me had managed to stop it, and we both looked down to realised it was a single penny. Not even a particularly shiny one. The chap usefully informed me "it's a penny". I then realised I was faced with a dilemna (albeit a quite staggeringly unimportant one). In this situation you simply can't win. If you bend down to pick it up, you will be looked upon as a right mean sod, scared of losing even a single penny. If you don't however, you'll be seen as an arrogant and mindless spendthrift, too important to bend down for the purpose of picking up mere change. In the end, I opted for the not bending down approach.

Well it probably doesn't really matter does it? Still though, I wonder if it is indicative of something or other wrong with our society. Perhaps. Or not.

If over a year, you dropped a hundred pennies, then that would clearly be half a pint that otherwise would have been down your throat...

Posted by rowanboy at 2002/09/08 10:07:07.

If you get paid 15 pounds an hour, then you're being paid 25p per minute. That's 1p every two seconds. If it takes more than 2 seconds to pick it up don't bother.

Posted by Rob Lang at 2002/09/09 21:18:08.

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