Christmas has become a method of wealth distribution under the name of gift-giving. But the wealth being transferred in not from the giver to the receiver exclusively.
Because this transfer has attached to it a level of status and cultural support, gifts are being given to those who don't need them by those who can't afford them. To maintain the culture’s environment, its members must continue to accumulate debt in order to give these gifts, forcing them to work more than necessary to repay it. This fuels even more overall consumption by everyone. (Only a few of us can increase work without increasing consumption.)
The system’s goal is simply to move money around so some can snag a piece as it moves by. Whether people want to or need to is irrelevant. This goal allows those who produce things to take a piece of everyone's current wealth through the transaction, called profit. Lenders get some of our potential future wealth, called interest. The rest of us end up with less than when we started through the deal.
So, while we give money to the shops borrowed from the credit card companies in order to give an object to someone else (who’s doing the same thing), we all end up with less in the end, the difference going to the brokers of the deal--the shop owners and creditors, who encourage us to keep it up.
Happy Holidays.
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