Stix, Madeleine. "Teen to government: Change your typeface, save
millions." CNN. 29 Mar 2014. Web. 29 Mar 2014.
Link: http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/27/living/student-money-saving-typeface-garamond-schools/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Ever since the financial and fiscal crisis began in 2008, saving money has been a top priority for the government, leading to a series of mass spending cuts and new reforms. However, while Republicans and Democrats debate over the nation's spending bill, 14-year old Suvir Mirchandani from Pittsburgh has a revolutionary idea that could save a lot of money: Changing the font that the government uses. According to Suvir's research, each federal employee prints on average 7,200 pages each year, which means a significant amount of ink, which costs about $75 an ounce, is needed to print all that. Therefore, Suvir proposes that the government should switch to "Garamond," a typeface that looks similar to Times New Roman (the font the government currently uses) but in reality saves about 30% on the amount of ink needed, due to "thinner" letters. With this said, Suvir calculated that a switch could save the government $234 million dollars, an unprecedented amount! This method of saving money could also be applied to local public schools, with upwards of $20,000 of annual savings. This could definitely be a breakthrough innovation that would save money around the country.
I've seen this article as well. I think this speaks to having the government simply reevaluate the way it does business. Maybe this means bringing some new blood into various departments and taking a fresh look, but this article demonstrates a way that simple solutions can be found for larger problems in Washington.
ReplyDeleteI read about this a little while ago. That's pretty crazy! I think I like the suggested font a little better than Times New Roman anyways.
ReplyDeleteTo think a 14 year old was able to think of such a simple solution that could help our country save money. Government officials can never agree on our countries spending bill, but this child was able to save our country money by switching the font they use which would reduce the amount of ink in order to print the documents. I wonder how many other simple solutions we can find in order to reduce spending?
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