The Bane of... Gift Cards?

Have a look at this article. Even though it basically writes my opinion off as young and uninformed...

Many young people are so enamored with gift cards, with being "empowered to make their own choices," as one retailer laughably put it, that they don't even realize what they're missing.

... I honestly don't see what the issue is. And let's keep in mind that I'm a historian who may as well have been born in about 1932, not 1982; if it's old fashioned, I tend to accept it more readily than things that are new.

Honestly, though, what's the problem here? I can agree with bits and pieces of what the author said; there are a lot of situations where a gift card is absolutely the wrong thing to give. For example, if I were to give Michelle, or April, or M@ a gift, and I gave them a gift card, I would be wrong. However, there are situations where a gift card/certificate can be a great thing to give and/or receive. I'll give you a couple of examples.

If someone wanted to give me something 007-related, particularly a Bond film or an Ian Fleming novel, that would be a very appropriate, personal gift. However, it can be expected that I own or have read a number of the novels (I own three, have owned four total) and own a number of the films (I actually only own one, but one could expect it to be different). If someone were to give me a gift card to Borders or Amazon.com and eremark it for something Bond-related, that'd be a great gift.

There are occasions when you're expected to buy a gift for someone who you don't know extremely well. In a perfect world, we would only be obligated to buy for those we know personally; unfortunately, that's not always the case. In these situations, a gift card to a general purpose store (a Fred Meyer, or a G.I. Joe's) can be appropriate.

Let's face it; some people give horrible gifts. My great-grandmother was classic in this regard; she once gave my uncle my great-grandfather's long underwear. By this time, my great-grandfather had been dead for at least ten years, his old long underwear had holes in them (he got every inch out of his possessions); also, my great grandfather was less than six feet tall, and my uncle is 6'4". If my great-grandmother had given gift cards/certificates/money instead, we wouldn't have quite so many stories about horrible gifts (a watch given to my brother, monographed with my dad's cousin's name; or the ladies' wallet she gave me), but we would have gotten a lot more use out of those gifts.

Now, there's probably a bit of irony in my position, though I don't think the irony makes it untenable. I'm the first person to tell you that one of the reasons why pain and suffering is valuable and acceptable is because without it, joy can't be appreciated fully. By extension, unless you've received horrible gifts like a ladies' wallet or used long underwear, you can't appreciate the really awesome gifts, like the Texas Ranger badge Michelle sent me in 2004, or the copy of The Naval Officer's Guide I got from Mudflap's dad back in '99.

The author of the article whines thusly:

The harm is that the art of gift-giving is quickly devolving into an entirely commercial exchange. How much longer until we simply start thrusting wads of dollar bills at each other?

She obviously doesn't realize that, at its base, that's what gift-giving is: simple capitalism, with an addition of sentiment in the best cases. The point of any voluntary (or, in some cases, semi-voluntary) transfer of property is that you are trading or even ceding the capacity to do things. Let me give you a couple of illustrations.

Last year, among other things, I sent The Mirror (my ex-girlfriend in England) Surprised By Joy by C.S. Lewis, and a pair of wool socks. Part of the value of these gifts were the sentiment of the socks (she was constantly borrowing my wool socks when her feet got old) and the book; but the point of the gift was that I was sacrificing a portion of my financial power (money) to buy things for her, simultaneously saving her the effort and financial power necessary for her to purchase the same items.

A few days ago, I went over to my grandmother's home and helped her take holiday items and equipment out of her attic; she handed it down to me, and I walked it down the stairs/ladder for her. She could do it herself, but I gave her a gift of my time, because the task becomes much easier and quicker with my size, stamina, and strength. In the same way, people exchange a part of their greater earning power, or their diverse skills, in order to make each other's lives better.

Gift cards may lack sentiment in some situations, but they add something that many other gift options don't have: versatility. And at their base, they're no different than another gift: they represent a sacrifice of the time needed to earn the money to make such a purchase, and the accompanying financial power gained through time worked, for the benefit of another person. I see no problem with that, particularly in situations like the ones I listed above.

Thoughts? Questions? Post 'em.