Relative value
A friend passed on one of those constantly-forwarded humor messages, which included one item relevant to our discussion:
"IT'S STRANGE, ISN'T IT?
Isn't it strange how a 20 dollar bill seems like such a large amount when you donate it to church, but such a small amount when you go shopping?"
This phenomenon might have something to do with how we perceive our donations. A $20 seems small when we're shopping both because we want much more than it can buy and because we experience gains from trade in our exchanges in the marketplace, trading our $20 for something worth more to us (the essence of voluntary trade).
When we approach the collection basket, however, the gains from trade are not as immediate - perhaps we see that $20 as a loss (something that psychologists and experimental economists tell us makes us value the $20 more than we'd value a $20 gain).
Churches that successfully raise money from their members are either (1) convincing people that donating money to the church brings a reward (as with the various "give and get back more" messages offered by some); (2) convincing people that they are undertaking a moral duty - something Fr. C discussed in his recent post (which I am still digesting).
#1 seems a little dubious theologically - perhaps the priests can help us on that. It isn't obvious to me that my welfare is always enhanced by getting more; sometimes, I'm better off with less. And then there's Job.
The real trick is approaching our moral duties joyfully, something that takes some work to do consistently, at least for me. I read stories of people who've put their God-given entrepreneurial talents to work to help people not only by creating wealth but who then take part of the fruits of those enterprises and do additional good in the world. Bill Gates seems to me an example of such an individual - not only has he done enormous good by playing a role in cheapening computing power so that individuals like me can blog about moral duties, etc. but the Gates family has put substantial sums into malaria eradication, education, etc. (We could debate Microsoft's business tactics, but that's another topic. For now I will just say that I find my interactions with Microsoft products ever-more value-enhancing than my interactions with Department of Justice products, and leave it at that.)
"IT'S STRANGE, ISN'T IT?
Isn't it strange how a 20 dollar bill seems like such a large amount when you donate it to church, but such a small amount when you go shopping?"
This phenomenon might have something to do with how we perceive our donations. A $20 seems small when we're shopping both because we want much more than it can buy and because we experience gains from trade in our exchanges in the marketplace, trading our $20 for something worth more to us (the essence of voluntary trade).
When we approach the collection basket, however, the gains from trade are not as immediate - perhaps we see that $20 as a loss (something that psychologists and experimental economists tell us makes us value the $20 more than we'd value a $20 gain).
Churches that successfully raise money from their members are either (1) convincing people that donating money to the church brings a reward (as with the various "give and get back more" messages offered by some); (2) convincing people that they are undertaking a moral duty - something Fr. C discussed in his recent post (which I am still digesting).
#1 seems a little dubious theologically - perhaps the priests can help us on that. It isn't obvious to me that my welfare is always enhanced by getting more; sometimes, I'm better off with less. And then there's Job.
The real trick is approaching our moral duties joyfully, something that takes some work to do consistently, at least for me. I read stories of people who've put their God-given entrepreneurial talents to work to help people not only by creating wealth but who then take part of the fruits of those enterprises and do additional good in the world. Bill Gates seems to me an example of such an individual - not only has he done enormous good by playing a role in cheapening computing power so that individuals like me can blog about moral duties, etc. but the Gates family has put substantial sums into malaria eradication, education, etc. (We could debate Microsoft's business tactics, but that's another topic. For now I will just say that I find my interactions with Microsoft products ever-more value-enhancing than my interactions with Department of Justice products, and leave it at that.)
Posted by Andy Morriss on
Tuesday August 30, 2005 at 1:18pm
Don't know about you guys, but I need that reminder quite often. . .
great idea for a blog, btw.