It is peak Christmas time once again and it is time for my traditional endorsement of the gift of savings.
The concept of the gift of savings becomes even more relevant these days, as the human race struggles with problems like climate change, global warming, and plastic pollution, where over consumption and crass commercialism play a big role in the world-destroying emissions and waste that we generate in order to produce almost everything we need to live, work, play, and in this case, celebrate Christmas.
The original idea behind the gift of savings is financial savings, which is what happens when two parties agree to give each other the gift of savings. It is the way of the kuripot and lazy gift giver, just repackaged to look nicer, but the bottom line is that we save money and time when we are not obliged to give each other gifts. And if both parties agree to that, then everybody saves and nobody is offended.
The problem with the gift of savings is that you have to be pretty close to the other party you intend to engage in the contract with, because it takes a certain level in a relationship to be able to pull off suggesting to give each other the cheeky gift of savings.
However, if you come to think of it, now that we have so many problems that we need to face when it comes to our planet and environment, all of which are related to consumerism, the gift of savings really needs to come forward and be presented as an option because it addresses so many of those problems as well.
Every gift that is sold and bought is made with raw materials and produced in a factory, all of which were ultimately transported from one place to another until it reaches the intended recipient. Everything it goes through, from mining, farming, gathering, production, storage, and transportation, involves greenhouse gas emissions.
After a gift is given, it either gathers dust on a shelf, or is used for a bit before it goes into the trash bin, where it becomes part of the solid waste management problem that our towns and cities are facing, along with contributing to the scourge of plastic pollution where the Philippines is among the world’s top producers.
Considering all that, the gift of savings starts to make even more sense, because unless we can give something that the recipient really and truly wants and needs, most gifts ultimately end up as waste, or if fortunate, regifted, but in the end, like everything, still becomes waste.
The gift of savings allows us not to spend on gifts for each other for the sake of giving gifts. That means we get to save up for the things that we really need, will use, and won’t hoard or throw away.
World leaders getting together and signing climate and pollution treaties can’t seem to make a significant dent on our half-assed attempts to mitigate global warming by cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Whatever targets and agreements they sign just can’t seem to make a big impact or even just trickle down.
However, if enough of us are willing to undertake the cultural shift required to subscribe to the gift of savings, such an effort could change our collective spending habits to make an impact on the entire supply chain, reducing the demand for stuff that will just end up as trash which hopefully means that its production will slow down enough to lower the greenhouse gas emissions and pollution that is generated from those industries.
I know that the feeling of having a present, opening the wrapper, and holding something physical given to us by someone cannot be replaced by the satisfaction of knowing that you didn’t spend unnecessarily which means that your bank account is growing so you can now buy the stuff that you really need. Subscribing to the gift of savings doesn’t necessarily mean giving and receiving zero gifts moving forward, but it does mean that whatever gifts we get are the thoughtful and meaningful kind, and not just being given for the sake of giving, even if the practice is just generating more waste for the planet, at the expense of more greenhouse gas emissions.
With the gift of savings, along with finding a way to use technology so we can database and crowdsource the act gift-giving so we can put up legitimate wish lists that can allow multiple people to chip in and get us the stuff that we want, instead of those people giving separate but useless presents, we may even be able to do our share in saving the planet.*
