Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays

by Joel Waldfogel

Book Overview

How consumer spending during the holidays generates enormous amounts of economic waste

Christmas is a time of seasonal cheer, family get-togethers, holiday parties, and . . . gift giving. Lots and lots--and lots--of gift giving. It's hard to imagine any Christmas without this time-honored custom. But let's stop to consider the gifts we receive--the rooster sweater from Grandma or the singing fish from Uncle Mike. How many of us get...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0691142645
• ISBN13: 9780691142647
• Release Date: October 2009
• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

The morning after...

Joel Waldfogel is really onto something with his book, Scroogenomics. The chapter entitled, Have Yourself a Borrowed Little Christmas really caused me to reflect on the days when layaway or Christmas Clubs for saving were common. Those made so much sense, yet today people find themselves feeling the pressure of holiday gift giving without the forethought to put money aside ahead of time - hence the morning after regret and heaviness of debt. When you go on to consider that the value of the gifts you gave is substantially less, on average, than what you spent, the whole picture looks rather grim. Where is the "holiday spirit" in that?? Fortunately, Scroogenomics offers a great gift solution: Charitable giving. One of my family's traditions is to put together donations of food and miscellaneous necessities for distribution at local food banks. This is a family project that is festive and fun. I don't know anyone who has accrued credit card debt for charitable giving - and giving represents a feel-good opportunity to remember what the holidays are supposed to be about: a celebration of giving and family. And that's something to feel good about the morning after!

Scroogenomics = YES!

Brilliant! A must read for our consumption-driven culture! This book spoke to my dismay over years of awkwardly receiving well-intentioned, yet thoughtless, obligatory holiday gifts. It should not be surprising that, in my family, much of what we receive at holiday time gets donated to Goodwill or re-gifted to someone who would actually use or appreciate the item. The burden of STUFF is too great to keep gifts that are not truly valued for other than sentimental reasons. Thank you, thank you Mr. Waldfogel, for calling out the charade that holiday gift giving often is. This book will, ironically, be among the (few) gifts I give this holiday season!

A Refreshing Antidote to the Buy Buy Buy Media

This book is brilliant. Look around you during the holidays. Most of us are actively trying to get "stuff" out of our lives. Clear the drawers, attic, garage, basement. The issue is not needing more stuff. The issue is needing less stuff. And then people give us more stuff for gifts. Unless the gift giver has brilliant mind reading powers, the "more stuff" they get for us is unlikely to be anything we really want, let alone need. All these gift givers are spending money to buy more stuff in a world that is already overflowing with stuff. (See "The Story of Stuff" on YouTube if you have not seen it before.) Joel Waldfogel applies economic theory to our intuition in showing that the media and corporate hype around gift giving is misplaced. His book explains on many levels that conventional gift giving creates a huge amount of wasted time and money, both in America and abroad. Joel says that Store Gift Cards area good solution for people who can use them. And Joel says that for others, Charity Gift Cards are a great idea. As the creator of TisBest Charity Gift Cards, I am thrilled to see a Wharton professor using economics to back the Charity Gift Card idea - an idea whose time has come. Thank you Joel for a refreshing book in the midst of holiday consumption hype!

I am on your side Joel!

I loved this book! It was a very interesting read. The things that mean the most to us in life, especially as we reach our ending years, are not the gifts we were showered with, but the people who have entered our lives and brought enrichment, from them being who they are. The thought of someone using their hard earned money to buy you a gift, sometimes out of their thought of obligation, is just off kilter to me. I say use your hard earned money and spend it on your own trinkets of happiness, and just give me your friendship, love, and kindness, so to make me a better person; no gift you give me will do that. Your thoughts of wanting to give to me is all the gift I need.

Finally, Someone Willing to Stand Up and Point Out the White Elephant in the Room

Finally, someone willing to stand up and point out the white elephant in the room... This is a refreshing book for its honesty and frankness. I have tried to have this conversation with my family for a few years, but to only find deaf ears on the subject. In a perfect world, everyone would put a lot of thought and effort into their gift buying decisions. But that doesn't happen; not to belittle the efforts that people make, which are often very much in earnest, but the average person is likely so caught up in their own day-to-day life that they really aren't as in tune with the people they know as they think. Even family members rarely truly know what others like or want - ask any teenager on that one. As someone who has spent his adult life trying to make very personal gift choices, I have come to learn two valuable things: One, even when I think I know someone well, I still don't live inside of that person's head and thus can never truly look at something from his or her perspective, and never fully know how much or little they appreciated it; and two, since about the age of twelve, I have rarely received gifts that I valued as much as the gift giver probably expected (and most often, I have found the gifts more unwanted than anything and a waste of the natural resources used to make them from my personal world view). Whether the giver has been family or friend or lover, unless it was something I had already expressly showed a desire for, the gifts have most often missed the mark; and sometimes when asked for specific gift ideas, the buyer chooses a different brand or version (sometimes even a more expensive option) thinking it just as good, when in fact is not what I wanted, which leads to disappointment. I greatly dislike the whole gift idea list as it proves the point - if I have to give you a list (and vice-versa) I am better off just buying it for myself as would anyone I would be buying gifts for. The best gift is the one that is least expected; one, because since it is not expected, disappointment is not likely; and two, because the gift given unexpectedly is often the one that has had the most thought put into. Since our society is not likely to reverse course in the foreseeable future and remove the expectations of Christmas gift giving (and return to a celebration of the season as in olden days - we're talking hundreds of years here), I believe that the gift card is the absolute best solution and will be the only thing I list to my family (I only provide the list because ignoring the repeated requests for one is usually more effort than just providing one), and is likely the only gifts I will be giving this year - luckily, I know exactly where my family likes to shop AND they know exactly what they want or need. There is one other option, and that is addressed well in a great companion book to this one: The Hundred Dollar Holiday by Bill McKibben: Hundred Dollar Holiday: The Case For A More Joyful Christmas. In this nice little