"OK now where is my REAL present!" Dave that WAS your real present, I thought it was just perfect for you. Alas...
Multiply my experience, by the hundreds of millions that bought gifts for others' last year, and you probably see that this is just another tragedy of modern times. Economic inefficiency in wealth transfer.
I'm reminded of Milton Friedman's 4 ways to spend money. Which articulates a home truth about the worth of money to the individual spending it. This has been the Libertarian's central tenant. That money can't be spent efficiently by government (red box below), and a smaller government is better for all of us. But I'm still yet to be convinced on that wholesale dismantling of government thing.
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| Freedman's value proposition: Money spent on yourself (best) vs other peoples' money spent to benefit others (worst) |
The Gift Economy was something that our pre-industrial forebears engaged in as common practice. That was to share in surplus production. Staples like meat and crops spoiled quickly without refrigeration. Plus the goodwill you could generate from your neighbor was something you could bank on. Co-dependence is a buzz-word that modern society has long done away with, because of the earning and hoarding of money as a store of wealth.
Nowadays barter exists but look at how Australian Tax office deals with this activity here:
As a general rule, when valuing the payment arising
from barter or countertrade transactions, we will
accept a fair market value as adequately reflecting
the money value or arm's length value, as applicable.
For the purposes of the tax laws, payments such as
GST, income tax and the super guarantee levy must
be remitted to us in Australian currency.ie; for tax purposes, one must equate a barter transaction into a fair monetary equivalent for tax purposes. Oh and you can't use a pork belly to pay your taxes. This kind of tax law aims to keep us always with one foot in the money-go-round.
But not in a gift economy. Minimal exemptions apply in cases where gifts are sent across boarders. Look at the Canadian law here. Import of gifts of up to $60 are tax exempt, just as long as you opted that the mail-order purchase to yourself was bow tied.
In short, I believe that a sense of community is gone from our modern society, simply because we are fixated on acquiring monetary wealth, and then using it for individualistic purposes. A gift economy is not about money, barter or an expectation of exchange. Its sharing your surplus with the community for whom you depend on for things that are more important than money.
