24th November 2007, 12:42 PM
Hey, some people agree with me.
I try to talk family and friends out of gift cards and to money instead just because I think the upsides of that outweigh any bad "image" they might get, and every argument has been wittled away but this one. "Well if I get money I spend it on necessities, but if I get a gift card I HAVE to spend it on a book or music or something." That... no really you consider that a plus? If you are in enough financial trouble that a gift of money must be spent on food and shelter, isn't that an argument FOR giving them money instead of a gift card? What sort of relief is it to know you can't use that gift card on the necessities?
It really just seems like the most backwards sort of argument...
I try to talk family and friends out of gift cards and to money instead just because I think the upsides of that outweigh any bad "image" they might get, and every argument has been wittled away but this one. "Well if I get money I spend it on necessities, but if I get a gift card I HAVE to spend it on a book or music or something." That... no really you consider that a plus? If you are in enough financial trouble that a gift of money must be spent on food and shelter, isn't that an argument FOR giving them money instead of a gift card? What sort of relief is it to know you can't use that gift card on the necessities?
It really just seems like the most backwards sort of argument...
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)