Value Nation...

According to the New Yorker, a penny costs 1.7 cents to make. A nickel costs almost a dime. Isn't that crazy? The fundamental symbols of value, of profit, create loss by their very existence.

A consumer drives twenty miles in her SUV to save twenty cents on an item, but she forgets the coupon, so she drives home and gets the coupon, drives back to the store, and they refuse to take the coupon because it expired the day before. Disgruntled, she stops to refuel on the way home.

(photo by Jason Evans)