Firstly, Scrooge has an unfair rep. People call misers ‘Scrooge’ but they forget the over-riding moral of the story. Having stood, and wept, over his cheap tombstone in an unkempt graveyard Scrooge repents and becomes a very model of generosity and kindness. As others mocked his about turn and laughed at him ‘he let them laugh and little heeded them. His own heart laughed and that was quite enough for him. And it was always said of him that he knew how to keep Christmas well if any man alive possessed such knowledge‘. We could all learn from that Scrooge – charitable, kind, not caring for what other people thought, full of the joys of Christmas. Scrooge, therefore, should be a compliment rather than an insult.

Secondly, as numerous economists point out, the stereotypical Scrooge is useful too. As Hartford points out in Prospect, Schelling’s classic Micro-motives and Macrobehaviour, sets out the pointlessness of many of the Christmas cards sent. ‘People feel obliged to send cards to people from whom they expect to receive them, often knowing that they will receive them only because the senders expect to receive cards in return’. This is a little like mutually assured destruction by politeness.

Hartford also points out the uselessness of sending gift vouchers – many are unredeemed and many end up on ebay which seems like a strange way of giving relatives money. Why not just give them the cash – that way they get to buy whatever they like from wherever they like (and, furthermore, get to keep the change!).

Landsburg in his book (More Sex Is Safer Sex*) argues that the original Scrooge is actually the model citizen. Indeed, the pre-repentant Scrooge is far more socially good than the charitable Scrooge at the end of the book. He was a rich man who didn’t spend money on food, wine or clothes. He ate gruel because it was cheap. This meant, fairly obviously, that there was chicken for someone else to eat. He lived well within his means – we could probably all learn from that too, even if we might forget it for the next week or two.

The money he so carefully accrued and saved was bunged in a bank and gathered interest for him. This helped capitalise a bank but also helped drive down interest rates and, better still, could be utilised by the bank to offer credit to other businesses – either as start-ups or as businesses needing liquidity during tough times. Again, this is a social good – good on Scrooge – the more he didn’t spend (e.g. saved) the more credit was available for others in the economy. He was an accidental Dragon.

Of course, if we were all Scrooge’s, there would be a problem. No one would consume the chicken or wine or chocolate – we would eat lots of gruel but people would be unwilling to enter a market because they couldn’t foresee people buying up the goods they were producing. They’d need to lay people off (or not employ them). The credit would, essentially, be useless as no one would be willing to take it up. So we need some Scrooge’s – both pre-repentance and post-repentance but not too many…

Have a very Merry Christmas

* Try reading that one on a crowded train