Economics Lessons in Holiday Stories

Surprisingly, holiday stories can teach us many things about economics.

Consider Mr. Scrooge. He seems to have been a money lender of some sort. He may not have been quite the villain he is made out to be. If Mr. Scrooge were not in the business he was in – lender of money on the expectation of being repaid with interest – the lives of the people of London might have been far poorer. They needed money when they borrowed it, and Mr. Scrooge was willing to part with it for a time. If he was not willing to trust them with his money and if he was not accumulating wealth while practicing this generous art, they would have never had been able to avail themselves of the opportunities that allowed them to start and continue their own businesses and buy and live in their homes.

What about the three wise men and their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh? Matthew 19:24 suggests that the holy family should’ve rejected these gifts as too extravagant:

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.”

Far from rejecting them as extravagant, the Holy Family accepted them as gifts worthy of the Divine Messiah. Such gifts vastly increased their net worth. There is no record that suggests that the Holy Family paid any capital gains tax on the three gifts. Hence another lesson: there is nothing immoral about wealth; wealth is something to be valued, owned privately, given and exchanged.

The Case For Ebeneezer and Economic Lessons of Bethlehem, both via DealBreaker.