Christmas is an economic disaster, a waste of money and an orgy of wanton wastefulness that costs us $25 billion a year, says Wharton economics professor Joel Waldfogel.
Waldfogel argues that people waste money buying presents for people that they don't really want. Everything from socks, shirts and ties that they'll never wear to CDs they won't listen to, games they will never play and books they'll never read. Waldfogel says: "The way we celebrate Christmas around the developed world is with an orgy of value destruction that vaporizes $25 billion per year, People value the items they receive as gifts 20 percent less per dollar spent than the items they purchase for themselves. These are items that are not well-suited for their tastes."
As The Economist reports, the way around the problem is for people to give gift vouchers.
Now, it must be noted that Waldfogel has just brought out a book Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays which has been well timed to coincide with the Christmas buying rush. No doubt from his perspective, writing the book was no exercise in wastefulness.
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