The Cost Of Money

A couple days ago, my typical stroll through the blogs which I find to be of interest led me to an article containing a few facts and figures regarding the journey a dollar bill takes (link below). It may have something to do with it coming up twice in a few short minutes, but I can't seem to get it out of my head. 

Sure,some of the line items feel rather inconsequential, but a there remain a select few that I just cant quite shake. Basically, I have come to realize that it costs 6.4 cents to produce a dollar bill, that there are approximately four billion dollar bills in circulation and that this the strain of use limits them to a standard lifespan of 21 months. Those numbers may seem meaningless, but let me explain why they should matter. 

If you think about it, some rough math would bring you to realize that having singles (or one-dollar bills) costs the country about $146 million a year ($4 billion in singles x (12 months/21months) x $0.064/dollar to be replaced). Even though that doesn't bring into account the larger-denomination bills (which are more costly to produce but less common and have a longer lifespan), it's still a massive chunk of change. 

What all of this has led me to understand is that everything costs money. Even money itself costs money, and a lot of it. Just the fact of having singles cost each person in the country an average of about fifty cents a year.  It almost makes me feel guilty to use cash instead of my debit card, not guilty enough to stop though. It's somewhat sickening to realize how much money is attached to everything in our lives. Even without a gold standard, money is expensive. Every time one of us exchanges, or even just ruffles up, a dollar bill, we are putting a little wear on it, bringing it closer to it's final resting place, causing it to need to be replaced, and, thus, costing ourselves money. It may be small in comparison to giving up that dollar at that moment, and we may not directly have to pay that cost, but who else is going to foot that bill? I'm not arguing abandoning paper money as I see some technological drawbacks to that system, but it just made me think. I mean, we are creatures of habit, and I don't see myself giving up using singles (please hold the gentleman's club comments).