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We're paying too much for gifts - study

By Scott MacDonald

The Halifax Daily News, Tuesday, December 19, 2000

Canadians are in the midst of wasting $2 billion on unwanted and unvalued gifts, says the head of a Halifax-based think tank.

Genuine Progress Index Atlantic recently conducted a survey that asked respondents what they would be willing to pay for the gifts they had received in previous years.

On average, the respondents would have paid 30 per cent less than the gifts' purchasers forked out.

Ronald Colman, director of GPI Atlantic and one of the survey's authors, said Sunday that the poll shows people should reconsider the rabid consumerism now associated with Christmas.

"People have to stop and ask themselves, 'What is this holiday really about?'" Colman said.

"We have to ask how much of our gift-giving is motivated by generosity and caring and how much of it is motivated by guilt and obligation? We have to look for less materialist ways to express our generosity and to manifest the holiday spirit."

Canadians are expected to spend $6.3 billion on Christmas gifts this year.

Colman said the true cost of over-consumption is actually greater when the environmental consequences are considered.

"How many trees are cut down just to produce the advertising inserts in newspapers and mailboxes?" he asked. "How much waste is produced by packaging alone? If these costs were counted, the true losses would be much greater."

Of the many possible alternatives to useless gifts, one of Colman's favourites is making a charitable donation in someone's name. Another alternative, he said, is not to give a gift at all, but to give time.

"People should really think about the amount of hours they have to work in order to make the money they spend on those gifts," Colman said.

"What if that time was spent with your family or your loved ones? I mean, what's the trade-off here?"

GPI Atlantic is a non-profit research group dedicated to establishing alterntive measures of public well-being.

 

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