Everytime you give a Christmas gift, a child dies from hungerDecember 24, 2007
What would the world be like without Christmas gifts? Would the economy collapse? Is Christmas responsible for conditioning children to live a life of rampant consumerism? Is giving really better than receiving? I won’t try to answer all those questions, but I will talk about consumerism. Christmas, Valentine’s day, Mother’s day, birthday presents, and every other day of forced expenditure definitely teaches people to assign a price to emotions. If someone doesn’t spend enough money, obviously they don’t love you as much as you love them. If someone doesn’t buy what you wanted, obviously they don’t pay attention to anything you say. If someone forgets to buy a gift, obviously they don’t really care about you at all. People should consider a radical alternative lifestyle, one in which people only buy what they need and only give what they can afford. Without all these forced and excessive expenses people would not only save the cost of each gift, the gas required to get from store to store, the time exhausted doing research instead of productive work, and their sanity — but they would also help save the world. I’m talking about the massive global mal-investment caused by billions of dollars spent at home and abroad to manufacture the millions of gifts that aren’t needed and never used. I won’t even attempt to calculate exact figures, but consider the following — does the world really need all those fruitcakes? How many toys are given only to be played with once or twice? How many times have you received clothes that you actually wear? Now imagine if all that money was spent on something useful, like investing in your retirement fund or saving for your kids’ education or (God forbid) feeding some hungry people. When you give a Christmas present you are actually taking food away from hungry people. Not only because your money could have been spent more effectively somewhere else but also because most of what you buy is probably produced by underpaid laborers in China. And let’s not forget the many millions of advertising dollars spent in a massive coordinated conspiracy to convince you that people who don’t give generously are lesser humans. Lou Dobbs should hate Christmas. If your butt gets sore carrying all that cash in your wallet, don’t fret, that’s what plastic is for. People aren’t just spending money they have, they are spending money they hope to have in the future. You may not want to look at your credit card bill for a few months though, while interest accumulates, it could get ugly. Go to the gym instead, fatty. Don’t worry, just keep up those mortgage payments, your house is the best investment you will ever make. Christmas should be called what it really is — an annual bankruptcy festival. It’s quite amusing to me that given the commercialization of the most important Christian holiday the Evangelicals focus on terrorism, abortion and evolution as the greatest threat to Christian culture. De Beers has done much more to undermine Christian culture than Al-Qaeda ever will. Where are O’Reilly’s warriors now? Instead of hearing messages of peace and charity everyone hears messages of consumption and excess. The idea that much of the population’s moral guidance has been hijacked by corporations and retailers is quite disturbing. They tell us how to be good people, and all ten of their commandments involve giving… stuff you purchased from them. Maybe Churches can regain their relevance by offering to manage your finances. Wouldn’t that be ironic — the private sector teaches morality and the Church’s teach financial discipline. But don’t let all that ruin your holiday spirit. Go forth and shop, 70% of the American GDP is depending on you. Merry Christmas! No related posts.
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I wonder if some people would invest more assiduously if giving gifts of stock or investiture were commonplace. =)
Now there’s a great idea. I can’t believe financial institutions haven’t jumped on that yet.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/cgi-bin/PrintStory.pl?document_id=2004088502&slug=santa23m&date=20071223
Somewhat relevant, Santa crucification protest, with pic.
I really like the point in paragraph two about not spending enough on a gift, getting the wrong thing, or not getting a gift at all. A personal example: my husband did not know what to get for his mother for xmas. When I got my mom flowers for her b-day she was overjoyed. I told him to get a nice Christmas flower basket (with sleigh) for a gift $68 including delivery. She ends up telling him that it was a waste of money and she would’ve rather gotten the cash for what she wanted instead. Ungrateful B! Maybe next time I will invest the money or give it to charity and send her the receipt instead. Well-put article. Thank you.
I just had to post this gem. Angry grandpa ruins Christmas.
http://www.break.com/index/angry-grandpa-ruins-christmas.html