Ammon News - By Yusuf Mansur

After celebrating Christmas again with my in-laws in the US, and having survived the battle of the bulge through two Islamic holidays (Eid Al Fitr and Eid Al Adha) with the rest of my family in Jordan, I feel compelled to write about the economics of seasonal occasion related waste among the rich and poor.

Please do not be disappointed, I am still in the holiday spirit and don’t feel like lambasting some lame politician yet, but I am sure old habits will take over once the holidays are gone and forgotten. Oh, and this is not an attack on anyone’s belief system, just people’s spending habits.

On almost every occasion in Jordan we serve the legendary mansaf, my all-time favourite meal and definitely the antithesis of my pseudo-Atkins diet. But in Jordan, it is customary not to have more than five guests to one dish, which is huge, containing about 9kg of lamb and 3kg of rice, topped with fried pine nuts and almonds, and succulent, aged sheep yoghurt.

The waste that emerges from this demonstration of abundant generosity is what economists call dead-weight-loss, or in short, waste.

In Ramadan, a month when one is supposed to fast and feel for the poor, almost everyone I know eats too much, far too much, and more food is purchased than in any other month of the year.

The overall increase in consumer demand and suppliers’ greed causes prices to skyrocket in the holy month, which proves that some people tend to behave badly when they are supposed to be charitable. Instead of losing weight, fasters usually gain weight. Stacks of food are cooked every day; most of it is disposed of and also goes to waste.

Come Christmas Day, pies, turkey and tonnes of other appetising dishes were spread in front of me; yes, me, a die-hard economist who was fretting about coming to the US in such depressed times. I truly expected to see parts of the turkey, not the whole thing, on the table. Come on, these are hard times.

Anyway, the lamb and the turkey became one to me, being a bicultural man who having crossed continents to celebrate another occasion with loved ones, came to the conclusion that both rich and poor tend to waste on seasonal occasions.

Then came the presents; I was grateful for every gift and cherish the love behind them, but they were objects that I truly never thought of buying. Ok, the camera for my laptop was great and so was a voucher towards purchases at my favourite bookstore, but as for the rest, I could have done better myself spending the cash-equivalent of these gifts. But then, as with all gifts, we would lose the element of surprise if we were to purchase our own presents. Plus, giving a person money (cash or cheque) discloses the value of the gift and enables better comparisons and rankings of who loves you more. (I know this latter point is grossly cold but unfortunately this is how economists are trained to think - dismal and cold.)

But I am not alone in having these Scrooge–like thoughts and bah humbugs.

Joel Waldfogel, the eminent Yale professor, published a paper in 1993 estimating the amount of waste during the holiday season. His findings: 90 per cent of all gifts are undervalued by the recipients; the missing 10 per cent was simply waste, a total of $14 billion that year. The paper had resounding recommendations: make your gifts in cash or ask the potential recipients to find out exactly what they want.

So if anyone feels like cooking a lot in Ramadan, Eid or Christmas, maybe they should invite friends, relatives and neighbours to make sure that all the food is eaten. If the cooking and overeating binge persists, perhaps they should invite some poor families to their homes and have them share the food, the same food. This way, families can occasion-pool, and take turns cooking and eating.

What about mansaf? I know one way to save on mansaf powwows: serve it in dishes instead of clustering guests around the main dish. They will eat the same amount, but from their own plates and this way the very same main dish will serve many more people.

Should one give his bride-to-be cash instead of a shiny overpriced piece of pressurised coal? The rock will most likely lose value if ever resold and the cash can be easily converted into investment and income–generating funds. Think about it!

But are you really ready for such advice? Do you want to lose that look of wonder on the face of a child who sees such culinary splendours on the dinner table after fasting for a whole day? Or are you ready to forego the glee of a loved one over a gift that you searched for and took the time to wrap? I doubt it!

I think Waldfogel missed a point: surprise and instant gratification or happiness is worth something, may be the 10 per cent waste he calculated.

So, eat up, be merry, enjoy the holidays and have a great new year.

ymansur@enconsult.com

(Jordan Times)