Valentine’s Day
By: Brianna Burks
On the 14th of February every year the holiday Valentine’s Day is celebrated and it affects people more than they know. This is the holiday that is know for making that special someone in your life feel important. There are many items that are purchased during the holiday time: chocolates, cards, flowers and jewelry, as you can see by the image below. There is 448 million dollars that is spent on this day, some say that this gets a lot more money circulating in the economy. That the spending on Valentine’s day is a stimulant for the economy that is gets people spending the money they sometimes don’t want to spend.
However, in the link above it talks about the money that is spent on Valentine’s day could have been used for something else, getting money circulating just as much. Or it could have been saved in a bank and that bank could have used it elsewhere. In the first minute of the video it talks about how the our economy is more like a free market economy and that is what allows us to go out and spend the money on the gifts. That a long time ago only the royalty had enough money to go and buy gifts. Now we have the free market and people are allowed to make money and buy the private goods that they would like.
There are many tradeoffs that are involved with valentine’s day and buying someone that perfect gift. Now that you bought your special someone that very nice necklace you gave up for money and your time, those are your tradeoffs. The opportunity cost of this purchase is that know you can’t go buy yourself a new pair of shoes, or whatever you would like most. You have to make sure that the marginal benefits out way the marginal cost when buying this gift to make sure that you will not regret it in the end.
There are many things that people do on Valentine’s day they can go to a movie, go out to dinner or some people go to a park, walk around and see all the beautiful things that this public good has to offer. With all these happy couples walking around there are some externalities that happen. There are 3rd parties that are witnessing this and for some it can be a positive externality. Meaning that some people that see other people happy, it makes them happy and puts them in a good mood. However, some people view these people as a negative externality, they find these happy people a little too much and maybe even annoying.
There are many things that go into the economics of Valentine’s day. Not only does this affect the consumers, it also can change some producers. The Production Possibility Curve for some business can change. For example if a farm grows both roses and corn, the corn production will go down and the production of roses will increase, shown in the figure above. This is due to supply and demand around this holiday people need roses to give to their special someone.
Works Cited
"Chegg.com." Definition of Production Possibilities Curve (PPC). Web. 18 Feb. 2015. <http://www.chegg.com/homework-help/definitions/production-possibilities-curve-ppc-12>
"The Economics of Valentine's Day."YouTube. YouTube. Web. 18 Feb. 2015. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDbcboJwuPc>.
"Valentine's Day By the Numbers Infographic." History.com. A&E Television Networks. Web. 18 Feb. 2015. <http://www.history.com/topics/valentines-day/history-of-valentines-day/interactives/valentines-day-by-the-numbers>.
I like your piece a lot because it focused on a seemingly huge day for many people, but it took an economic standpoint on it. You did a great job incorporating vocabulary words and having demographics to back up your piece. I am so impressed how you incorporated the PPC, externalities, and public and private goods because you were able to take a single subject and relate it to our first term of economics. It is interesting how Valentine’s Day boosts the economy. Do all holidays do that? The only thing I would suggest is a stronger conclusion because it seemed like your piece ended on a note. Overall, wonderful job!
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you related the article to the holiday we just celebrated! It was very interesting to read how much money is actually spent on Valentines day merchandise. I also liked how you were able to take another view on the opportunity cost of buying a gift for that special someone, the example of the negative externality you chose. Overall it was very interesting to see the very well written economic standpoint on this holiday.
ReplyDeleteI agree seeing all these couples on Valentines day is super annoying, and also a great negative externality to all of us single people. It is just crazy how much money we spend on candy. But I can totally see it, due to the fact of little kids buying it for Valentines parties and for each individual Valentine card they give out. Then poof after Valentines day all the candy is super cheap, and there is no longer a need for the candy. Same thing happens after all major holidays here in the U.S.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed your blog, very festive. You brought up some good points. I laughed at the negative externality part because it's so true. You can be out and see a couple being all cute so initially it's a positive externality but it quickly changes to a negative one. It is also kind of crazy just how much is spent during Valentine's Day/week. I figured that a lot of people spend money during this time not just those that are in relationship but also those who get the good deal on the chocolate. It's easy to see that Valentine's day does in fact give the economy a boost.
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I thought this was a really creative idea you worked around, as I'm sure many people could point out the economic factors of people buying their significant others a ton of things and spending a ton of money, but you also managed to incorporate many other economic concepts, like public and private goods, the PPC, and I thought your take on the positive vs externalities of seeing happy couples was pretty hilarious, and very true. An externality doesn't just have to be something that causes an economic disruption, it can be any sort of cost, even annoyance--sometimes, especially annoyance, like in the case of noise pollution and other things of the sort. I wonder if our nation's economist workers appreciate Valentine's Day because people give the economy a boost with all their buying. I would think so. Perhaps that's why we have so many Hallmark holidays. Businesses just want people to spend money!
ReplyDeleteValentine's Day is just another commercialized holiday. Why devote one day to your relationships? Can't you give your SO flowers, candy, etc. any other day of the year? It just seems like a way for candy and card companies to increase their profits for the 1st quarter. My favorite part about Valentine's is the cheap candy in the days following it.
ReplyDeleteI knew that Valentine's Day makes people spend more money. I just never realized how much money people spend for their loved one. It amazes me that people spend a lot of money on Valentine's Day instead of saving it in a bank like you said. I loved all the vocabulary words you included and they worked wonderfully. It actually made me laugh inside when you used negative externality because it's the people who are looking on at happy couples that don't have a positive experience because they are alone on a holiday of showing love. I also liked your visuals they added more knowledge and information to your post. Overall really nice piece and I enjoyed reading it.
ReplyDeleteThis event, Valentines Day, makes so much money even though it's a hallmark holiday. Just made up holiday and people think it is reasonable enough to follow along with. What a dumb day if you think about it, one day out of 365 days that we should be showing extra love to our loved ones. I'm going to buy you all this cute stuff just because it's a day that I have to. How about randomly going out and telling you love a loved one spontaneously instead of on a day where you are "required" to. People just are just too lazy and forgetful to remember to tell a loved one you love them so they made a day of it. Really it should be a slap in our faces that we can't even remember to tell show love and appreciation to the ones we love most.
ReplyDeleteBrianna, I thought that you blog post was super interested. I had no idea that people actually spent this much money on valentine’s day! I mean nearly 500 million dollars on one holiday that is ridiculous! I really thought it was interesting how you compared what life was like back when people weren’t able to buy things like this to now, how much and how many people spend a lot of money on valentine’s day. I also thought it was really creative and useful to use the PPC in order to show how the holiday could totally change how the production of certain things could change what a company or farmer is doing for the next few months. I also think that you took a different approach to the topic that made it more interesting than just the amount of money that went into the economy for valentine’s day, and the video you linked was very good. The only thing that I would’ve like to maybe see is a comparison of different amounts of money that we spend on holidays because I think that it would be interesting to see how Christmas or Halloween rank with Valentine’s day. Overall, really nice job - there was a lot that I learned that I hadn’t known before or even thought about.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog post as I really never took into account the hefty amount of money that follows these classical hallmark holidays, from a consumer's point of view. Five hundred million dollars. On candy. That's an insane amount of revenue for the companies producing them and makes it very worth it for these kinds of holidays to be more common. However from a consumer's point of view it's a little absurd that we are spending this kind of money when we could be saving it or certainly doing smarter things with it, but people will spend their money as they please regardless of what they should and shouldn't do, it's what makes the invisible hand work!
ReplyDeleteI knew that Valentines Day may cost a lot for people, but looking at that picture completely surprised me. I didn't know 58 million pounds of chocolate is sold that week! That's absolutely crazy! I liked how you found a production possibility curve that related to this. Nice job incorporating a lot of vocab words. Also, I thought it was cool that you started your piece all nice and simple in the first paragraph, and then it got a little more complicated as you moved on. Great Job!
ReplyDeleteIt’s such an interesting philosophy with a huge benefit to candy and flower companies; everyone feels entitled to buy something for that special someone, and it creates a significant boom in the economy. People often don’t even realize just how much they may spend on such a holiday, and this just makes the cash flow even more. The numbers are just astounding. The externalities comparison was an interesting way of looking at it as well, with 3rd parties seeing couples as either positive or negative externalities. During the holiday, most are in a better mood and more likely to view them as positive externalities since that is the basis of the holiday. I would have never thought to apply economic concepts to Valentine’s Day! Great job!
ReplyDeleteThe graphic that I find most interesting is the production possibility curve. I’m sure that most holidays have a similar effect on the PPC, with expenditure moving our location on the curve in the direction of the holiday-pertinent good, and away from the out of season item. One thing I’d like to know more about is the marginal cost/benefit analysis. Is it the price of certain items, like jewelry, or the quantity, such as the amount of roses, that is being analyzed by unit?
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