It’s the “I need to give a gift” mentality people have, specifically old people. I have told Grandma/Grandpa that I don’t need birthday gifts and such, but they just keep giving gift cards. Because not giving something makes them think they’re bad. While companies make profit, I’d honestly like straight cash over gift cards.
It is halfway between buying something they like and just giving them cash by giving them money to spend on a limited amount of things. Yes, it is inferior money that only exists because of obligated consumerism gift buying.
There is one semi valid reason which is wanting to buy something online which you can’t buy with cash. In those cases it is also inferior to something like a debit card because you have to put a specific amount on the card that most likely does not match what you want to spend.
Companies see this as pure profit and people buy them, so why would they give discounts and lose that profit?
Yeah, but why do people buy them? It’s just exchanging money for inferior money.
It’s the “I need to give a gift” mentality people have, specifically old people. I have told Grandma/Grandpa that I don’t need birthday gifts and such, but they just keep giving gift cards. Because not giving something makes them think they’re bad. While companies make profit, I’d honestly like straight cash over gift cards.
It is halfway between buying something they like and just giving them cash by giving them money to spend on a limited amount of things. Yes, it is inferior money that only exists because of obligated consumerism gift buying.
There is one semi valid reason which is wanting to buy something online which you can’t buy with cash. In those cases it is also inferior to something like a debit card because you have to put a specific amount on the card that most likely does not match what you want to spend.
Probably the same reason people want to give homeless people food instead of money, to try and limit the opportunity for poor decisions.