tammerwhisk: What's wrong with a fucking pie, cheese, drink or something instead though (if you absolutely must get someone something)? What special meaning does throwing one's wallet around convey exactly?
Alaric.us: Nothing at all. Those are equally unneeded. That's the point.
Sending someone a rock is like sending someone flowers. It's an entirely useless item, which serves as a proxy for conveying a certain message. It's just that in our culture flowers are the standard way of doing this.
I disagree. When you have enough money to buy pretty much anything, then the most valuable things become the things you can't buy, most notably time.
More specifically, I'd be way more appreciative of someone who baked me a pie, or offered some other thing that showed they had put some time and/or thought into it, than just someone who bought some random expensive thing.
So I'd agree offering flowers in and of itself is worth about as much as offering a rock, but sending the
right flowers (i.e. ones that the person really likes) is worth much more simply because it shows you put some effort into the gift.
