Gift economies: Accounting for presents

You’ve heard of sharing economies, and market economies, and gig economies. But how about economies based on giving and receiving rather than selling, buying, or even bartering? In a gift economy, gifts are given without explicit conditions to build a system of obligations, social ties, and expectations. (Here’s a [handy video explainer]( The key isn’t necessarily what’s being given, as in a market economy, but how gifting affects the relationships between the giver and the receiver. In some instances, this looks like a system where everyone gives whatever they can, and everyone receives as much as they need in turn. In others, gifts might be given as a show of prestige to acquire social wealth. Or actual wealth. “Banks do lots of free favors for companies in the hopes of getting lucrative paying work from those companies later on,” [writes Bloomberg’s Matt Levine](. These favors, or gifts, might be free work. They might also be “sports tickets and steak dinners and jobs for the companies’ executives’ kids.” Companies, now indebted by the original gift, will reciprocate with actual work. As in many traditional gift economies, the trick is courting the elites, writes Levine. “This only works… if you are a big enough company that the banks can tell themselves that you’ll one day give them a lucrative deal. If you’re not big and rich, you’ll have to pay for stuff.” Here’s a free—or is it?—explanation. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( [Quartz Obsession] Gift economies August 28, 2019 A what economy? --------------------------------------------------------------- You’ve heard of sharing economies, and market economies, and gig economies. But how about economies based on giving and receiving rather than selling, buying, or even bartering? In a gift economy, gifts are given without explicit conditions to build a system of obligations, social ties, and expectations. (Here’s a [handy video explainer]( The key isn’t necessarily what’s being given, as in a market economy, but how gifting affects the relationships between the giver and the receiver. In some instances, this looks like a system where everyone gives whatever they can, and everyone receives as much as they need in turn. In others, gifts might be given as a show of prestige to acquire social wealth. Or actual wealth. “Banks do lots of free favors for companies in the hopes of getting lucrative paying work from those companies later on,” [writes Bloomberg’s Matt Levine](. These favors, or gifts, might be free work. They might also be “sports tickets and steak dinners and jobs for the companies’ executives’ kids.” Companies, now indebted by the original gift, will reciprocate with actual work. As in many traditional gift economies, the trick is courting the elites, writes Levine. “This only works… if you are a big enough company that the banks can tell themselves that you’ll one day give them a lucrative deal. If you’re not big and rich, you’ll have to pay for stuff.” Here’s a free—or is it?—explanation. 🐦 [Tweet this!]( 🌐 [View this email on the web]( Reuters/Denis Balibouse By the digits [$5 billion:]( Estimated worth of the Linux kernel, which has been available for free since its inception in 1991 [$80:]( Cost of a weed-themed sticker in Washington, DC, which comes with a “gift,” of free marijuana due to a weird legal loophole [$2,218:]( Estimated cost of a trip to Burning Man [600:]( Pigs given, alongside other valuables, in one [Moka ceremonial exchange]( in Papua New Guinea [3,000:]( Approximate number of local “Buy Nothing” groups, in which members give away things they no longer want [$570:]( Cost of a unit of blood—and paying for blood donations can [increase safety challenges]( Fun fact! In German, Norwegian, and Danish, the word “gift” means “poison.” In fact, the [etymology is the same]( originally, the same word meant “that which is given.” How we 🎁 now The most famous gift economy? --------------------------------------------------------------- Burning Man isn’t like other festivals. Now in its 33rd year, the desert event is a seven-day cornucopia of dust, art, drugs, community, and “radical inclusion.” For many economists and sociologists, however, one of its most interesting facets is its gift economy, and a near-total ban on commerce. (You can buy coffee and ice, and that’s about it.) Sponsorship, advertising, and logos are out. Instead, there’s a radical spirit of giving what you can, and taking what you’re offered. Need a whiskey? It’s on the house. Grilled cheese? Take two! Burners show up with whatever they need to survive—food, water, other necessities—as well as something they can gift to the “people of the playa.” That might be pancakes, free hugs, or basic bicycle maintenance. As one Reddit user put it, there are [only two steps]( “Step 1: Give things away. Step 2: There is no step 2.” For founder Larry Harvey, gifting was a natural outcome of an environment where “participants were unwilling to distance themselves from others through economic transactions.” In the same way a family shares its resources rather than bartering or trading, [he told The Atlantic]( Burners build community by pooling their resources. The system has met criticism from more stringent anti-capitalists, who point to the very real financial outlay to provide free sandwich stands or free bars at the festival. That’s missing the point, Harvey said: “People give because they identify with Burning Man, with our city, with our civic life. It enhances their sense of who they are, and magnifies their sense of being. That’s a spiritual reward.” Giphy Pop quiz Which of these customs is not a feature of Japanese gift giving? Giving gifts to your co-workers around bonus time.Refusing the gift before ultimately accepting it.Waiting until later to open your gift.Giving someone a gift at the start of a meeting. Correct. Custom dictates that you wait to the end, so as not to affect discussions. Incorrect. If your inbox doesn’t support this quiz, find the solution at bottom of email. Origin story Welcome to the Kula ring --------------------------------------------------------------- When the anthropologist Bronisław Malinowski traveled to Papua New Guinea in 1914, he was struck by unusual behavior from the locals. They would travel hundreds of miles across treacherous waters to give one another bracelets and necklaces, he wrote—jewelry that was never actually worn, but instead circulated on to the next recipient. In [this 1920 paper]( Malinowski explains how this trading system worked, its “very definite and complex rules,” and how a system of perpetual giving helped assure hospitality and assistance for other members of the community. (There are some great pictures, too.) Though recognizably dated to a modern reader, this early scholarship is one of the first examples of Western writing on a gift economy. In his famous essay “[The Gift]( the French scholar Marcel Mauss explored some of these ideas, establishing a foundation for anthropological study of gift economies for generations to come. AP Photo/Thomas Kienzle Quotable “In a gift economy, the more you give, the richer you are.” —Gift economy advocate and [“de-growth activist”]( Charles Eisenstein “Money only exists if two or more people believe it exists.” —Daniel Suelo, subject of the book [The Man Who Quit Money]( “In the gesture accompanying the transaction, there is only a polite fiction, formalism, and social deceit… really there is obligation and economic self-interest.” —Marcel Mauss, author of the 1925 monograph [“The Gift”]( Have a friend who would enjoy our Obsession with Gift economies? [ [Forward link to a friend](mailto:?subject=Thought you'd enjoy.&body=Read this Quartz Obsession email – to the email – Watch this! It’s a wrap --------------------------------------------------------------- If you’ve ever had the pleasure of purchasing a present at a Japanese department store, you may have witnessed some of the best, and most efficient, gift wrapping of all time. This diagonal style is faster than Western wrapping methods, uses less paper, and produces a neater present. If you’re prepared to be a little patient, it’s really not that hard (though you may need to have a few goes at it first). Million-dollar question Does the gift economy run the free world? --------------------------------------------------------------- First-world democracies might all be market economies, but at their highest levels they’re gift economies. Many observers have noted that special interests don’t exactly “buy” politicians, or at least their contributions are [nowhere close to what an actual market would set]( for the benefits of a certain policy. Legal scholar Lawrence Lessig argues that campaign contributions are [part of a gift economy](. Instead of the “naive lobbying-as-bribe model,” they’re gifts that establish a more nuanced balance of personal obligations. It’s not as predictable as a straightforward quid pro quo, but it’s less crass, completely legal, harder to crack down on, and remarkably effective. Giphy Poll What’s your read on the gift economy? [Click here to vote]( BRB, shredding all my cash.I’m a Burner, man. This is old news.In general, I’m more comfortable receiving than giving. 💬let's talk! In yesterday’s poll about [autonomous vehicles]( 54% of you said you’d most like to see cities where everyone walks, cycles, or scoots. 🤔 [What did you think of today’s email?](mailto:obsession%2Bfeedback@qz.com?cc=&subject=Thoughts%20about%20gift%20economies&body=) 💡 [What should we obsess over next?](mailto:obsession%2Bideas@qz.com?cc=&subject=Obsess%20over%20this%20next.&body=) [🎲 Show me a random Obsession]( Today’s email was written by [Natasha Frost]( edited by [Whet Moser]( and produced by [Luiz Romero](. The correct answer to the quiz is Giving someone a gift at the start of a meeting. . Enjoying the Quartz Obsession? 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