Because even if your lovie agrees with you that it's all a scam and a made up holiday, you're still in deep shiat if you don't do the card.

Supply and demand.

Next question.

Lets put it this way:

Where are trying to get her to look at us like this:


Compared to the time, effort and money already spent in this endeavor 5 bucks for a card is nothing.

Because capitalism?

What economic concept should we blame? Monopoly? No. Oligarchy? Closer, but no cigar. Imperfect competition? I think we are getting closer.

I will blame the ability of sellers to separate the sheep from the goats, and the fools from their money.

It works like this: you can send anybody you wish a charming little personalized e-mail or note on your best note paper, but that requires two things:  tact and judgment to write the note and chutzpah to cheap out.

So the Devil invented greeting cards to cater to your laziness and other vices.

Now, greeting cards could be printed at a very low cost and sold for next to nothing, but the seller wants to maximize profits. How to do this? Make a lot of different cards. This creates imperfect competition because no two cards are alike in style or value. Some are very expensively produced, some are cheap. Some are tacky and aimed at morons, while some are tasteful and very, very expensive indeed and aimed at people with a lot of time and money.

This is imperfect competition because instead of being a commodity that is fungible (interchangeable), cards become a vast array of choice, sending a vast array of clues about how clueless you are, how cheap, and also how much you dislike the person you have to send the card to or else be thought stingy and ungrateful, etc.

By doing this, another advantage is gained by the card makers:  people are willing to spend different amounts to show they care (or to imply how little they care). By giving them many choices at many prices, you can 1) pry money out of those who are willing to spend more; 2) sell to those who aren't willing to spend much; and 3) turn card-giving into a nerve-wracking competition where the consumer is willing to spend more money than they need to or should just to get out of the store.

Also, the price of the card is right on the back for the nosey recipient to measure their market value to their friends, frenemies and coworkers, etc.

All of these sales techniques drive up the price of a card without driving down the number of people who buy cards, or the number of cards they buy. Assuming we all have roughly the same number of holidays and potential recepients, the same need to impress ourselves or others, etc., this multiplication of choices forces the maximum amount of money out of the maximum number of people the maximum number of times a year.

Ta-da!

The Aristocrats! Everybody is screwed every which way but loose.

oldfarthenry: Ladies want something that doesn't prematurely go off in their faces.

So tie the ribbon a little tighter.

Because your SO doesn't want to think you don't value them.

The Stealth Hippopotamus: Lets put it this way:

Where are trying to get her to look at us like this:
[img843.imageshack.us image 500x375]

Compared to the time, effort and money already spent in this endeavor 5 bucks for a card is nothing.

If my wife looked like that I'd buy her a greeting card every goddamn day

Diogenes: Because even if your lovie agrees with you that it's all a scam and a made up holiday, you're still in deep shiat if you don't do the card.

Uh oh.

Because people are willing to pay it. Also, so many cards now play music and have stuff attached. It's ridiculous. I work as a retail cashier and it boggles my mind how much people spend on cards. I see people drop $30 on a stack of cards. Half of them are tacky and stupid. The rest are your standard, unoriginal/sappy birthday/anniversary/sympathy cards. Lots of people still buy lots of cards.

Because they're just expected on holidays like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, etc. We are conditioned consumers.

Penis goes where?

I'm going to blame women on this one. The ladies like cards, men like women, so men will buy the cards. Hallmark knows this so prices are driven up based on the elasticity of demand.