James Surowiecki discusses the waste of holiday

James Surowiecki discusses the waste of holiday giving. “Waldfogel’s main finding is that, in general, people spend a lot more on presents than they’re worth to those who receive them, a phenomenon that he calls ‘the deadweight loss of Christmas.’” This is one of my big problems with the whole Christmas thing. Related: gift cards worth billions of dollars are left unredeemed each year.

• Christmas
• economics
• James Surowiecki