Disrespect for the Penny

Today I saw a plastic tray in a trashcan. There were still cubes of pepper jack cheese and cheddar cheese, sliced apples, and a tub still half-filled with caramel. Perhaps there was a celebration, a baby shower, birthday, or impending wedding, and someone had bought the pre-made tray of cheese cubes and apple slices at a local grocery store or discount warehouse. I only saw the tray for a second, but there was clearly a fair amount of cheese and caramel still in the tray. Maybe even enough food and enough calories for one person's full day calorie needs. And this wasn't just mediocre survival food, this was cheese and fresh apples and caramel. Delicious stuff, and there it was, in the trashcan. It didn't look to me like it's time had expired or that it was left over from last month. No, it looked like it had been discarded simply because no one wanted to bother to save it for the next 12 hours, and had chucked it because it wasn't worth saving the $2 to $4 worth of food the tray still contained.

I also read an article today, Both Parties Misunderstand Taxes, Sacrifice. It was a viewpoint piece at Bloomberg by Stephen L. Carter. I won't say whether I agree or disagree with his point, because I only want to point out one statement:

"a 2 percent cut would save a mere $4 billion annually"

Here is a giant amount of money that is, nevertheless, deemed too small in the context of the debt debates. It certainly won't solve the country's debt problems at one stroke, but why doesn't it warrant more than the word "mere"?

These two events have something very much in common: Disrespect for the penny. People are used to ignoring pennies on the ground, because it costs more in time lost to pick up a penny than you gain from this found money. This attitude has been extended, unfortunately, to an attitude that prevails across America. This attitude is a "princess" attitude, in that the holder of the attitude believes that saving a small resource isn't worth the effort, because clearly that would be beneath them, as they are a, well, princess. And failing to worry about these small amounts therefore clearly shows how wealthy and worthy they are, how important they must be. It is almost as though the ability and willingness to discard small amounts of resource are badges of honor, or signs of royalty. Such attitudes are clear signals to the opposite sex of just how worthy a mate the wastrel must be, because they clearly aren't concerned about such as small loss.

The antidote to recession and economic malaise is eliminating this small but pernicious behavior. Because if everyone does it, then raising taxes and cuts in spending aren't the problem. WE are the problem. If no one saves these resources, and they add up quickly, then we will not be able to balance the budget even if a miracle occurs and the Republicans and Democrats were to unanimously agree. And if we choose to waste small amounts of resources because we are too important to worry about it, then we are exactly the kind of person who is destroying the United States, atom by atom, entitlement thought by entitlement thought, penny by penny.