Do you think gift-giving is good for the economy?

I don’t know – but it is good for the recipient.

Depends on who you mean it’s good for. Our economy model is based on eternal growth. Once you have everything you need (and can’t be convinced any more to buy things you don’t need), you can buy more things for yet more people, and that makes the economy grow. Supposedly, taking no other factors into account, this is Good. (One way it might be bad is if the environmental cost of making the gift caused such damage as to decrease future growth, but we won’t worry about that yet – what matters is growth this quarter and this year, right?)

Where it might not be good is if you spent more money than you could afford on that gift, perhaps on credit. If a bunch of people do that (just like a bunch of people have), and you can’t pay your credit bill, this recession is one of the things that can happen. And that is Bad.

Just like most situations, it’s hard to assign a “just good” or a “just bad” quality to it. Nothing’s that simple.

The economy is about the movement of money and value. Just because you give someone a thing instead of a wad of cash and just because there’s nothing given in exchange does not make it any less of an economic transaction.

Even if the economy isn’t growing, it’s good for money and assets to keep moving around.

It is good if you are buying the gift.