those looking to annoy their families should read the literature on the deadweight loss of christmas - a brief summary is available in the economist below. the original paper based on the gift valuations of a sample of US students caused a lot of debate.
the links below gets you in to the spirit
http://www.economist.com/finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=885748
http://www.bgu.ac.il/~oritt/deadweight.pdf
http://ideas.repec.org/a/aea/aecrev/v83y1993i5p1328-36.html
1 comment:
Meteor had a good idea here. Their Christmas advertising campaign focused on punishing those who buy unwanted gifts. For instance, pushing your granny back out in the snow if she buys you a tea cosy. This ad was subsequently banned for being ageist but a general ostracization of bad gift givers could be more acceptable and reduce the 'dead weight' of Christmas. Personally, the t-shirt I recieved of Garfields friend Odie overdosing on tranquilizers was not really in line with my preferences.. especially considering our dog had been put down two days previously!
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