Economists (or at least the more Grinch-like ones) have long complained that gift giving is afundamentally inefficient activity. In economics, efficiency means that you’re sharing around resources, like money or reindeer socks, in whichever way creates the most value and least waste possible. Essentially, economists want you to gift those reindeer socks to your uncle that enjoys wearing novelty footwear year-round, rather than your too-cool-for-school niece who will immediately chuck anything that kitsch in the nearest bin.
Plenty of people would agree that this sounds sensible enough, at leastin theory. Indeed, in the early 20th century a group of American women set up SPUG, or the Society for the Prevention of Useless Gifts, to push back against the purchasing of what they saw as pointless tat for Christmases, birthdays and other celebrations. Interestingly,a key dynamic in SPUG was working-class womenwho were fed up of being pressured to contribute to presents for their bosses. While they didn’t quite word it this way, they were echoing the idea of economic inefficiency by pointing out that the money they contributed to an unwanted desk plaque or whatever could have been better spent providing for their own families.
The thing is, though, that most of us are really quite bad at knowing what other people do or don’t like. So unless we stop giving presents altogether, inevitably a high percentage of them are going to be unwanted and end up being chucked out or left to gather dust. For some people, though, that doesn’t matter. Gift giving, they point out,has more value than how useful the present is to the recipient. Gifts are also a social signal that we care about someone, which can make them feel happy and appreciated even if they absolutely hate the lumpy sweater we’ve knitted them.
Their contention is that gifting actually destroys value. They even have a term for it — “the deadweight loss
deadweight loss
In economics, deadweight loss is the difference in production and consumption of any given product or service including government tax. The presence of deadweight loss is most commonly identified when the quantity produced relative to the amount consumed differs in regards to the optimal concentration of surplus.
of gift giving”. It's the value (or price) that's destroyed when the gift changes hands. Or put more simplistically, it's the gap between how much the gift giver spent and how much the receiver values the gift.
With gift giving, the seller still gets his profit, but the ultimate consumer (the gift recipient) gets an item that produces less satisfaction than an equal amount of spending would have led to if she had purchased an item for herself.
Economist Joel Waldfogel noted that because of the mismatch between what the giftee values the gift and the value paid for by the giver, the gifts lose between 10% and one-third of their value; he calls it the "deadweight loss of Christmas". This leads to gifts often being returned, sold, or re-gifted.
Over-giving is also a sign of co-dependency, excessively emotional or psychological reliance on their partner. An NBC news article cited these co-dependent relationships as "an imbalance of power that favor the needs of the taker, leaving the giver to keep on giving".
It's fine. So if there's a wedding, graduation, rite of passage, or holiday on the horizon, and cash is what you want or need, please know that—as a bona fide expert in gift-giving etiquette! —I am telling you it's fine just to say so.
Telling someone “you shouldn't have” deprives the giver of the joy that comes from giving. Receiving also allows each of us to recognize that we were important enough for the giver to want to give something of themselves to us. Receive each gift with kindness and a genuine thank you.
Due to increased demand and footfall, employment is provided for many individuals during Christmas, often at a higher pay rate. These are often jobs in retail, logistics and hospitality, and many people rely on this for their yearly income.
Americans are individually expected to spend about $1,000 across gifts, decorations, food and other holiday spending. Unsurprisingly, gifts typically make up the majority of Christmas spending, at $648 per person.
One prominent positive effect of the Christmas season is the creation of jobs. The heightened demand for goods and services during the holiday period translates into increased employment opportunities, especially in sectors such as retail, logistics, and hospitality.
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Toxic generosity, irrational generosity, pathological altruism, over-giving and people-pleasing are a few of these. Such people go beyond being generous givers and become excessive in their giving to others.
Specifically, narcissists give gifts with an eye to maintaining a relationship with the giver and to maintaining control in that relationship. You don't get expensive gifts from a narcissist because they think you are awesome; you get valuable gifts because they want you to continue to think that they are awesome.
Offers of gifts/hospitality must be made in 'good faith' and are not considered legitimate if the intention behind the offer is to advantage the individual making the offer; i.e. the offer is made with the intent that the person who accepts the gift/hospitality will perform a function improperly and partially.
Some economists may misinterpret the data, and others may give too much or not enough weight to certain factors. Still, other economists have a favorite formula for predicting the economic future that may exclude certain items of data that, if considered, would project a different picture of future conditions.
One of the main arguments against free trade is that, when trade introduces lower cost international competitors, it puts domestic producers out of business.
Economists sometimes offer conflicting advice to policymakers for two reasons: (1) economists may disagree about the validity of alternative positive theories about how the world works; and (2) economists may have different values and, therefore, different normative views about what public policy should try to ...
In order for a gift economy to work, individuals must trust each other and be willing to give without the expectation of immediate return. This can be difficult to establish in larger communities or societies, where social relationships may be more impersonal.
Introduction: My name is Horacio Brakus JD, I am a lively, splendid, jolly, vivacious, vast, cheerful, agreeable person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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