« Bagehot: Beware the busy banker | Main | Updates »
The Twelve Days of Christmas
...shopping online raises the price for the gifts by nearly $9,500.
Overall the "nine ladies dancing" cost no more than last year, but the "eight maids a-milking" are governed by the increase in the federal minimum wage. Here is much more information about the gifts and what they cost. Perhaps for environmental reasons, the inflationary pressure in the index comes from the swans:
Swans, which vary widely in price because of their scarcity, have caused big swings in the index. The gift package this year would shoot up to $21,080.10 if the swans were included because the going price for the seven is $5,600. That is a 33 percent increase, or $1,400, for the swans compared with the price last year.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on December 24, 2008 at 06:59 AM in Current Affairs | Permalink
Comments
We really should only report the twelve days index excluding swans as the Core Twelve Days Index - Christmas (Core TDI-C).
Posted by: Mario Sanchez at Dec 24, 2008 9:52:22 AM
Tyler:
The issue with swans is just tragic. There did indeed used to be more swans than now - sadly in many states wildlife officials kill wild swans and/or destroy their eggs.
For example, since 1993, New York State has destroyed eggs, harassed swans and outright killed these beautiful birds. Vermont adopted a policy in 1997 of ridding the state of all swans.
This despite the fact that in 2001 the U.S. Court of Appeals reaffirmed that swans are federally protected migratory birds. Swans are gorgeous wild creatures. But people cannot accept that cleaning up waterways, improving wetlands, and moving to the shores of lakes etc. will increase swan-human interaction.
Humans for some reason cannot accept that swans are large, powerful, wild creatures. Interfering with them can result in swans attacking and harming people. Yet humans insist on walking up to touch swans, approach them for photography, etc. I have myself seen this in NYC parks.
People will avoid unknown dogs, especially if they bark, but will often mindlessly continue to approach a swan, even when the swan stands up and starts waving its wings in warning.
Many say that swans are harmful to property such as fisheries and crowd out other species. This is only an argument for mitigation practices, not for extermination. Swans are lovely and deserve the enforcement of their protected status.
Posted by: Fortune Elkins at Dec 24, 2008 11:39:58 AM
So it looks like they are only counting each day's gifts only once? The lyrics of the song seem to indicate that each day the gifts from the day before are doubled, so on the 2nd day of christmas the singer has 2 partridges and 2 pear trees plus 2 turtle doves, then on the third day they have 3 partridges, 3 pear trees, 4 turtle doves and 3 french hens, etc.
Not that it matters, really.
Posted by: Paul at Dec 24, 2008 2:03:08 PM
They do have the calculation for the full set of gifts: "Hard bargaining would be needed to whittle down this year’s eye-popping $86,608.51 tab to give the gifts repetitively — including several flocks of swans — if the carol’s verses were scrupulously followed. Bestowing the 364 items would cost 10.9 percent more than last year’s $78,100.10, according to PNC."
Posted by: Andy at Dec 24, 2008 2:28:55 PM
Wouldn't the eight maids a milking be officially classified as agricultural workers and thus would be exempt from the minimum wage?
Posted by: spencer at Dec 24, 2008 4:19:32 PM
