Some have postulated that the star of Bethlehem, a harbinger
of great joy, might have been a comet.
The former workers at the stores of that name must be having a tough time this
Christmas. The gift of redundancy is a very
bitter one. I guess the Administrators , Delloites must have found their
failure to find a buyer for the white goods ‘ company put them in the place of
messengers but with bad tidings .
For the majority of folk who have some money to spend,
perhaps we have a tighter budget this
year Christmas. Our gift selection and purchase is on our minds. The task
is tricky enough for family and friends but also in our business relations clients or
suppliers and staff.
The perfect gift
For some it is important to buy the right gift.
So what do
you buy the female 'employee' who has everything yet has served an institution extremely well for 60
years?
In the case of our monarch, her majesty was presented with a set of
table mats in honour of her visit to No 10., Downing street in her jubilee year.
Eric Pickles the Communities secretary asked whether her
Majesty might have had enough table mats already before today's gift, Mr Pickles said:
"One can never have too many table mats."
I would imagine the table mat industry is grateful for this
endorsement of their industry.
 |
| My breakfast place mat on Thursday December 20th 2012 |
Here is a photo of my place mat on the morning after her
majesty visited No.10. to receive hers.
Mine was at a McDonalds !
BACK
to The Challenges of Gift Giving
If you think gift buying is easy and the answer to the UK’s
problems this season take heed of the viewpoint of economists.
Before we feel too pleased with ourselves there are
professors like Anthony J Evans to direct us to the seminal article called the
Deadweight loss of Christmas by Joel ( regrettably not Noel)
Waldfogel written in1993
Unless you ' froth at the mouth with excitement' at Economics
papers, I would advise you not to wrestle with this.
( I tried ! The consequence
of which brought back nightmares of my
student days in the last century struggling with ‘marginal propensities’, ‘utilities’
'Giffin Goods' and the ‘Harrod Growth model ‘-which I learnt by rote to pass an exam but I confess
never truly understood .
It seemed to me that curves on the diagrams that economists produce
were both baffling and had a another nefarious
purpose ! This was to insert calculus
into the course syllabus to make it last a few more semesters. Employing calculus
meant economics could be also labelled a ‘science ‘and respectable in Academic circles
;))
Fortunately Professor Evans explains dead weight economics
more intuitively . If only he had been my economics tutor back in the day….
A matter of taste
He explains ( or argues as academics are won't to do)
Extract of article in City a.m. page 19 Thursday Dec 2012
“ The main problem
with Christmas spending is that it’s often used to buy gifts. And the
problem with gifts is that they generate dead weight loss.
Most of us have a pretty reasonable understanding of our own
tastes and although we can buy things we regret, we have a strong incentive not
to do so.
It is typically our tastes that we regret rather than our
consumption choices.
Perhaps this is why gifts make more sense for children ,
because we take a more active role in
trying to shape their tastes.
When it comes to adults , the potential for waste is a lot
higher. In almost every conceivable situation , the recipient would prefer the
cash value of the gift itself.
 |
| Gift Solution with no economic deadweight loss w.r.t. Prof Anthony J Evans |
It’s always better to have the choice of £50 or a garish
sweater rather than a garish sweater that cost £50.
Some argue that gifts demonstrate thought and consideration.
But often the only thing they demonstrate is complete ignorance.”
The Professor’s answer to all this if the value of the gift
is information is rather than buy it tell the recipient what the gift is and give
them the cash to buy it themselves.
Waldfogel estimated
that holiday–gift giving for Christmas/ Hanukkah etc. destroys between 10% to a 1/3 of the value of
gifts.
I suppose to economists such as Joel Waldfogel and Anthony J Evans, the Magi should have
a. brought a cheque for the
value of the gold,
b. purchased their frankincense from Marks
and Spencer which could be exchanged for a scent of the taste of the recipient-
so long as the packaging and till receipt was presented.
c. purchased a Boots' voucher for myrrh
with the risk that only myrrh from the Boots chain could be exchanged.
Merry Christmas or Bah Humbug whichever matches your tastes dear reader and I hope 2013 turns out better for those former
workers at Comet.
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