For millennia, giving generous gifts has been a way of signalling one’s social status. In this way, super-charged Halloween sugar orgies echo the ancient past.jonathan sloane
Frances Woolley is a professor of economics at Carleton University, where she teaches public finance
The competition for trick-or-treaters is ramping up.
In 1961, fully one third of Canada's population was made up of children under 15: one trick-or-treater for every two adults.
Canada's population has nearly doubled since then, but the number of children under 15 has shrunk. This Halloween, the "too old for trick-or-treating" demographic will outnumber the ghosts and goblins by more than four to one.
It's not just that there are fewer trick-or-treaters than there used to be.
Across the country, there are neighbourhoods with no trick-or-treaters.
True, some children live in dangerous places where it's not safe to go trick-or-treating -- but not that many. Canadian children today face a substantially lower risk of poverty now than they did just 15 years ago, and Canada's crime rates have been falling for the past two decades. If anything, streets are getting safer.
Halloween black holes are as likely to be older neighbourhoods, suburbs built in the 1960s. Yes, these neighbourhoods have a few families with children. But trick-or-treating requires a critical mass of candy-givers and candy-seekers. Neighbourhoods can get caught in a vicious cycle. If there are no children trick-or-treating, older folks feel like there's no point in buying candy and carving a pumpkin. Nothing is more depressing than sitting at home, waiting for a knock on the door that never comes. But if people stop giving out candy, children go elsewhere.
Trick-or-treaters now congregate in Halloween hot spots. These are places with perfect demographics: lots of families with children, not too much traffic, well-lit sidewalks, and short driveways. Also, high average family incomes, so people can afford to hand out lots of chocolate. Imagine Bourbon Street at Mardi Gras. Hundreds of candy-seekers. Out-of-neighbourhood visitors disgorging mini-van loads of kids. Everyone enjoying the festive party mood.
If you aspire to hot spot status, a single pumpkin and black cat toffee doesn't cut it. Today's well-dressed house has a mock graveyard, chilling sound effects, or serious light shows. Chocolate is de rigueur.
Why do people go to such lengths to create a perfect Halloween house? To produce exquisitely carved -- or witty and original -- pumpkin designs? Sure, people like a party. Yet there is more to it than that.
Halloween is a time to invest in social capital. It's a chance to get to know your neighbours. Gift giving builds ties of reciprocity -- as the saying goes, what goes around comes around (sometimes, in the case of re-gifted Halloween candy, quite literally). For millennia, giving generous gifts has been a way of signalling one's social status. In this way, super-charged Halloween sugar orgies echo the ancient past, when many economic exchanges took the form of gifts.
Social capital has always been a smart investment.