Is a new Dollar a waste of time and money?

If you are anything like the average person in America when you think of the Treasury you might think of the IRS first. Some may think of the Federal Reserve. Even a few may think of the Secret Service. But how many would think of a dollar bill?

Obviously we all know that the Treasury is responsible for making the money we all use every day. And of the trillions of dollars made in the past 40 years or more, little has changed besides the signatures on the various denominations. In fact the Dollar has remains the same for so long that the term greenback, or greenmail, and so on are easily recognized to represent or involve the U.S. currency.

It’s also obvious to anyone who has lived overseas or collects currency from overseas (or as close as either neighboring nation) that we are a rarity in the world. We are currently one of the few nations that can claim a uniform size and color to its currency. But that was until today.

Why? Because there exists another thought that some Americans think of when they think of the Treasury or the currency. It’s along the lines of “pain in the a**”. And their reasons for saying so have merit. Because they are Americans that have problems with their vision or are blind.

So I can understand their issue. Every bill looks the same as another. It can be quite difficult to work out. But this is hardly a new issue as I mentioned before.

In fact, when the Government was sued because of how the Dollar looks and feels they went into court and said just that. The blind and vision impaired have long ago adapted to the currency question, and that to make changes would cause extreme financial difficulty. But the Court of Appeals wouldn’t buy it. So there may be changes in the works shortly.

Now I am not a fan of changing the Dollar. I agree that the cost is not justified, near term or long term. More aesthetically I always dislike the way European currency was of differing sizes and colors. It reminds me of Monopoly money more than a currency. I just never could take it too seriously. And with some of the exchange rates I’ve seen in my life, some of those currencies were worth just about that.

But perhaps more than that I disagree with the Courts reasoning. They seem to be creating laws from the bench. They are creating arguments that prosecutors are supposed to make. And they are doing so with a sarcasm that is, in my opinion, unbefitting judges of their level.

“The court said using the government's logic, people could argue there's no need to build wheelchair ramps because people without use of their legs can crawl or ask for help from strangers.”

That logic, if it has been summarized correctly, is insulting. The comparison doesn’t work unless you want to adopt an ultra-liberal interpetation. Such an interpetation is fine – if you are not a judge making a landmark decision. If for no other reason this makes them wrong.

Of course there are many overseas that have their own snarky, bitter and twisted, bollox comments about America finally following their lead. But since I don’t make fun of those currencies, even though some of their bills look more like poor hankercheifs – and are valuable enough to be used as one – I’m not going to pay attention to that.

What do you think? Do you want an orange Dollar bill the size of maybe a Candyland set money, and a blue 5 Dollar bill the sice of a small envelope? Do you think that the inevitable lobbying for a pink currency bill, or a yellow bill, or a black one is worth your taxes? Is this the issue we really want the Treasury to increase their budget (and inevitably our taxes that fund their budget) on? Or would you prefer to keep the dollar the same and get a better tax code, or maybe a better Fed Chair that can stay on top of the economy? 3 Judges have made their decision for you, but at least you still get an opinion here.