Valentine’s Day Dumb and a Waste of Money?

Crystal Rose from a pre-Valentine’s Day Dinner (dsbpix)

I had to get my Valentine’s in before I posted this story. My Valentine’s Day started at 12:35 am with a text simply wishing me a Happy Valentine’s Day; another early morning wish from a friend; a heart shaped donut; candies and card; a strawberry cupcake with heart shaped lollipop; and a few more shout outs. This has been a very simple Valentine’s Day for me but very nice. None of the above were dumb or a waste of money.

This is a must read story about Valentine’s Day. So far the best I have read about Valentine’s Day, very funny stuff. 

Valentine's Day Is Dumb and You're Wasting Money (MainStreet)

Valentine's Day is best illustrated in one series of actions: Withdraw from an ATM what you'd usually spend on date night, withdraw that amount again, show it to the person you love most and then flush the entire sum down the nearest toilet. 

That's basically the way every U.S. consumer has spent Valentine's Day since Esther Howland imposed the first mass-market Valentine's Day cards on the American public during the 1840s. Now the whole sordid, red-painted affair is a nearly $18 billion industry that trails only Thanksgiving ($30.5 billion) and Christmas ($135 billion) in holiday spending, according to IBISWorld. That's almost $3 billion more than what's spent on Mother's Day. Sorry, mom, but they just met at a bar two months ago and neither of them are getting any younger. 

That spending is only going up this year. The National Retail Federation estimates that American suckers ... er ... lovers are about to spend an average of $128 a pop to avoid getting the silent treatment or a stern dressing down. That's a nearly 8.5% increase from last year and includes an average $37 worth of flowers and $72 for a night out. It's a heart-shaped box of lovestruck spending that hides a rancid center of markups and emotional extortion.

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