Thursday, April 21, 2016
New Currency
It has recently been decided that Harriet Tubman will now replace Andrew Jackson on the 20 dollar bill. This change is expected to happen in 2020. There has been a lot of positive feedback saying that it is about time that a woman is featured on our currency. There has been some back and forth to whether Tubman should be on the 10 dollar bill instead of Alexander Hamilton, but there are plans to remove him from the bill as well. People believe that Jackson should be removed because "Jackson was a scoundrel, a slave holder and a white supremacist who was involved in the removal of Indians and was completely opposed to paper money and was horrible to women." Hamilton is believed to be a hero to this country and has done great things for our advancement.
What do you guys think? Do you think it is a good idea to change the currency to a woman? Is Harriet Tubman the right choice? Do you think that taking Jackson off the currency is an insult to his reputation? Should it have been Hamilton? Or does reputation not matter?
http://www.politico.com/story/2016/04/treasurys-lew-to-announce-hamilton-to-stay-on-10-bill-222204
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I agree with the change to put Tubman on the $20 bill over Jackson. Apart from their civil stances, I think Jackson's distaste for paper money makes this a much easier decision. I think that as a country we are long past the point where a woman should be on currency and I think it interesting that some conservatives such as Ben Carson agree with the sentiment (although I find his proposal of putting her on the $2 bill unusual to say the least).
ReplyDeleteI do not think that taking him of the $20 bill will be an insult to Jackson's reputation, in fact I think it could be argued that having him on any paper currency could have been a greater insult. Also it is not like Jackson is completely gone from the $20, he will just be moved to the back. I think it would have been a greater injustice if Hamilton was removed from the $10, considering he essential created the predecessor of the Fed. In addition, compared to Jackson he was much more for equality, and was not a huge supporter of slavery.
Many of Hamilton's financial policies during our country's early history helped pave the path to some of our early financial successes. I am glad he was not replaced off the $10 bill. I am indifferent about who is on the bill. The world is moving to a cashless society anyways. The only time I ever use physical bills/coins is to pay for laundry. I think many people have a similar experience.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a great idea to shift who is on our currency from historical politicians to historical figures who have had a great impact on society. The U.S. Dollar is a key icon of America and it is what many foreign countries think of our country! It's about time we had some diversity.
ReplyDeleteI think it was about time we put a woman on our currency. I like Brian's point about using important historical figures and not just politicians. Harriet Tubman is an excellent choice in my opinion given her role in the underground railroad helping slaves, as well as her promotion of women's suffrage. However, Kenny also brings up a good point about moving towards a cashless society. Nonetheless, I think paper currency will always have some historical and iconic value, so it's cool that they decided to incorporate Tubman.
ReplyDeleteAll of these comments are great and I fully agree. I'm glad it was finally decided to put Harriet Tubman on the 20 instead of removing Hamilton from the 10. Setting all of the awful things Jackson did aside, it's clear that as a president who disliked paper money and literally shut down the U.S. Bank that he's an appropriate target as opposed to Hamilton, who founded the U.S. Bank and as Kenny said paved the way for our financial success as a country.
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