Sean D. Francis

Nobody Uses the Internet on Fridays

Posted on 04 December 2009

I know, I know, I seem to only do one blog post a week and it is this one. Would you believe me if I told you I’m working on a well thought out brilliant post that is more than link bait? No? Yeah, I wouldn’t believe me either.

On that sad, disappointing note I present to you more sad and disappointing information regarding gift giving since we are moving into the season of gift giving.

The gifts you give to other people are economically inefficient. There, I said it. Someone had to. When you make a purchase for yourself, economically speaking, you exchange money for a good you perceive as having equal or greater value than the amount of money you are giving up. The $25 sweater is worth $25 or more to you so you buy it. When you buy something for someone else, you don’t know if that $25 is worth $25 or more to that person. You are guessing and it is possible the $25 sweater is only worth $10 to them. That is a loss of $15 of value to the economy. Does this sound awful and sort of anti-The Spirit of the Season? Well, it sort of is. You can hear more about this concept on Planet Money.

Giving a Gift or Giving an Obligation?

So in the end, finding the perfect gift for someone undoes a lifetime of poorly chosen gifts.  I think the real lesson is to just keep giving and hope you strike gold.