【美国电台节目】送礼是浪漫还是浪费？

TRANSCRIPT

It is the holiday season, the time of year whena lot of us spend a lot of money buying stuff for other people that we are notsure they are going to actually like - and economists hate this.

The holiday season isan important time of year for many people, but it is a really important time ofyear for the economy.

Especiallyfor retailers.

Yes.

All right. A lot ofretailers make more than half their annual sales this time of year. Holidaysales often set the economic tone for the following year as well. They're justa big deal. So you would think that economists would love the holiday season.

 Yeah, maybe not. Economists have really weird ideas about gifts.

 It's depressing.

It can be, yeah.

Economists areterrible about gifts.

TIM HARFORD: Oh, no. We are -no. We are brilliant atgifts.

No. It's aparticular angle that you guys take on gift-giving because it's all aboutefficiency. Like, economics is about efficiency, and gifts are not particularlyefficient. That is not necessarily their goal.

When you buy aChristmas gift, this is a big expenditure of resources. People worked hard tocreate this thing. And yet, some gifts - not all gifts - are not actuallyvalued by the people who receive them. What they value is the gesture, theconnection. And the larger the gift, the more resources have been put into it,the bigger the potential waste. And so if instead I were to maybe give you areally small gift that showed some real personal thought that I'd reallythought a lot about what you wanted and maybe written you a handwritten letterrather than just saying, oh, I'm going to go to Macy's; I'm just going to buy somethingbig in a big golden box, and I don't care about Stacey; I just care about thegesture - isn't the handwritten letter - isn't that better? You're telling methat I'm getting it wrong, that I...

I mean, what'sin the gold box?

Misunderstand.The true spirit of Christmas is just junk.

OK, here's Plan B.

No, no. I hearyou. I hear you, and you're right.

So here's Plan B.

I would ratherget a small, thoughtful gift than a giant, mindless gift.

Sure.

For sure.

Still, you want agift. OK. I hear you. You don't want a letter. You want a gift. 

I've had this experience withmy wife, for example. I know she really likes this particular brand of woolensocks that keep her feet warm in the winter. And so last Christmas, I thought,oh, you're a smart guy.

Wait, wait,wait. You got your wife socks for...

 Not just socks, but,like, one of the things she really likes is socks. So I got these, like...

Are you surethat's true? (Laughter).

She likes - I amsure it's true.

I feel likesocks and gift cards....Are the junkbonds of gifts.

OK, so here's thereason I'm sure it's true. She bought the same pair of socks herself and gaveit to me to, like - oh, please give me this gift for Christmas. And I'm like, Ialready bought those socks for you. Like, I already have those...

She boughtherself a Christmas present and gave it to you to give to her?

Yeah, because shedidn't trust me to do it right. And in fact, I wasso good that I was bad because we bought the same thing. So the solution to allof this is ask or look at a wish list. Now, I know what you thinking at thispoint. Wow, that's so kind of mechanical. That's sounromantic. That's like you're not even thinking.

It's like youdon't get a surprise.

There's no surprise.

It's just likeyou registered for a Christmas gift. I don't know.

Relationships grow or become moremeaningful very often when they are inefficient, right? So think about, like,the parents spending, like, a lot of time with their kids or something likethat. You can be doing other things. Sometimes, you're just lazing about. Butit's meaningful in the context of the relationship. So when it comes to givinggifts, anticipating what somebody wants isn't always as straightforward as,like, what they themselves have expressed that they want, right? Sometimes,like, the weirdo gift that they absolutely have no use for - OK? - is the thingthat deepens the relationship. And so even if, in the moment, the person'slike, OK, this gift - right? - is what I want; I'm, like, really excited aboutit, it might not be as memorable, say, as the incredibly weird thing that youcame up with...

That is useless.

Right. Right. Isthis, like, a cash thing - like, giving cash?

 Well, so cash isanother benchmark. I think to teenage kids, that's fun.

Would you wantto give cash? Like, as an economist, do you feel like you wish you could givepeople cash?

The trouble isthere's a big stigma to giving cash. Like, even we economists know, if you justsort of hand your spouse $100 on Christmas and say, I love you, babe...

So if people followedeconomists' advice about gifts, it would be terrible for the economy.

Yeah, but it'd begood for human beings. So that's - the economy...

What kind of aneconomist are you? (Laughter).

I know.