Hello folks. I have a dilemma. Perhaps you can help me out.
I found this cup at a Royal Farms gas station on Boston Street in Baltimore. I was pumping gas, looked down, and there was this cup one-fourth full of change. I stared at it for a while; looked around to see if anyone was looking at me, looking at the cup. I wondered for a minute or so if I should take it with me. I grabbed the cup, held it, sat down in my truck, door open, sat there with the cup in my hand, wondering if I should leave it, perhaps for someone less fortunate than me, or if I should just take it and toss it in with the rest of my change in the water cooler change deposit bank I have in my closet. Needless to say, I took it (and considering the 'less fortunate' angle, I recalled the countless times I have given those "less fortunate" folks money when they've accosted me on American streets) and I brought it home and counted it:
7 dimes
1 nickel
1 button
87 pennies
The button isn't worth much, but the coins add up to be $1.62, a fine amount if you want to start resurrecting those dreams of world travel and owning your own business, but I digress:
Now what?
I cannot bring myself to pour the change into my water cooler bank, so now the cup just sits on my desk, mocking me, echoing the ghosts of all the homeless persons that could have used the money on these cold and frigid Baltimore winter nights.
So what do I do with the dollar sixty-two?
What ever do I do?
3 comments:
This seems to be a dilemma of economic philosophy. Should you wish to practice American capitalism, you'd simply dump the cup into your own jar of change, increasing your wealth at the expense of whoever misplaced the $1.62 in change. If you wish to truly be a communist, you'd throw some stamps on the cup and send it off to the U.S. Treasury, putting it in the hands of the gov't.
My suggestion would be a mix of both. As a concerned citizen of the world, you know that keeping the money would be selfish, particularly when so many could use it. However, you should never make the mistake of letting altruism cloud your personal needs, either.
My advice would be a combination of the two philosophies. First and foremost, you need to extract from the sum an amount for yourself. This would, of course, depend on your personal level of charity, but I would suggest a sum nearly equal to 1/4 of the total. Not only is this a good percentage, but it allows you to keep a sampling of the wares.
In other words, you should keep 41 cents: One quarter, one dime, one nickel, and one penny.
The problem comes with the dispersal of the remaining $1.21. As is obvious from our military service, you cannot rely on the government to best disperse these funds, as those in power have shown no inclination toward an even dispersal of community funds.
Therefore, you need to spread the remaining change around yourself.
My suggestion here would be to put the remaining change in your pocket one day before leaving the house. As you go about your day, you should lighten your load a few coins at a time throughout your daily stop. Drop a few coins at the gas station, a few at the fast food joint where you get your lunch, a few in the parking lot outside your work, a few at the supermarket, a few at the bookstore, until all the coins are gone. While this does not guarantee that a demographic representation of society will get their fair share, it allows a broad spectrum of people the chance to claim their share.
As for the button, you should keep that in your wallet, as a reminder of this experience.
hope that helps.
I think the answer is obvious: transfer this change into a Zip lock baggie and carry it with you whenever you visit Charm City; distribute it bit by bit to homeless folks. (I'd bet the cup belonged to a homeless person, though I've no idea why said person abandoned the cup.)
I recommend you start you own credit card company with it and charge the card holder 30% interest. This way the card holder can never pay you back because the interest is too high and if you live for another 60 years that $1.62 will be worth $11,120,291.02 (I'm not kidding.. I really calculated it)!
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