The Nature of Reform
Q: What is essential to know in proposing reform?
A: People want change – but simultaneously do not want change.
This is the dilemma that designers face: Corporations and consumers want the latest hot, bold design, but are repulsed by something that is too novel and feels alien, even if it is the best design.
People have a strong emotional attachment to things that they are used to, even things that are annoying and useless to them.
The penny is a classic example. Americans hardly use pennies and find them a nuisance, but they resist eliminating the penny, because it is uniquely copper-colored, and because it has Abraham Lincoln on it (and because the zinc industry lobbies hard to keep it because the penny today is mostly zinc).
The United States had a half-penny which it eliminated in 1857. Today, it would be worth 13 cents, taking inflation into account. So nickels and dimes are also obsolete.
So, how to replace the penny? Create a dollar coin with Abraham Lincoln on one side, and Benjamin Franklin on the other, and call it a “Benny”. Because of inflation, new coins of a higher denomination eventually need to be minted. The alternative would be to use digital currency, but that is vulnerable to disruption (hacking, power outages) and subject to surveillance by governments and corporations.
The point is, there needs to be some continuity.
