Gift Economies - Midnight Run

Gift economies play a big part in today’s society when it comes to providing goods for the advancement of public good. There are many different organizations and individual people who make up a gift economy. A person who donates money to relief funds in conflict countries is contributing to a gift economy. Toys for Tots or the Salvation Army are organizations that contribute to the gift economy. Scientists and scholars contribute to the gift economy by sharing their work and ideas for other to expand and further advance in that subject. Peter Kollock, in his essay The Economies of Online Cooperation, states that the best example of someone contributing to a gift economy is one who is “a literal altruist – who works for the good of others without any regard to self.” These are hard to find indeed, but the overall point is that those who contribute to gift economies ask for nothing in exchange. A gift economy service that I contribute to is the Midnight Run organization. Do I classify myself as a literal altruist—probably not. But I do consider my contributions to others an example because I do not ask for anything in exchange for my services.

For those of you who don’t know, Midnight Runs are services in which people take items that are donated to a church and distribute them to those who are less fortunate. I am part of the St. Barnabas Episcopalian Church in Ardsley, NY and do these Midnight Runs with my grandfather about 4 times a year. He is very religious man and has always been a stern believer in helping those who aren’t as fortunate as him. My church on Saturday nights twice a month go around New York City distributing food, clothes, bibles, blankets to those who are living on the streets, or are in extreme financial crises. In a blog article titled How to Save the World, Dave Pollard quotes a philosopher named Hyde, who said “Every gift is its own reward, but that reward is multiplied, without limit, when the gift, or any gift, is passed along to others. A story is a gift. Blogs are gifts. Ideas and insights and teaching and counsel are gifts. Conversations are gifts. The Midnight Run service is a prime example of this because aside from giving out donated gifts, we hand out bibles and pamphlets to help enlighten those who have lost faith in the world. We also have small conversations with the homeless people which is a gift of its own because they have no one to talk to. Giving them 30 seconds of small talk makes their day.

Kollock in his article also wrote pertaining to public goods “First, it is to some degree indivisible in that one person's consumption of the good does not reduce the amount available to another.” This applies to the Midnight Run because there are so many other organizations (such as schools, Salvation Armies, synagogues) that participate as well. If my church runs out of clothing and blankets for one night, most likely the next night a different organization will be out on the streets continuing where we left off.

Finally, the Midnight Run can be classified as a gift economy because it helps people build relationships. On their website, they write: “Midnight Runs is dedicated to finding common ground between the housed and the homeless. Midnight Run tries to provide the homeless poor with a few of the bare essentials needed for survival.” Not only do we distribute blankets and clothing to the homeless we find a common ground with them. In an article titled The Gift Economy by Gifford Pinchot, he writes “In a gift economy it is the circulation of the gift(s) within the community that leads to increase—increase in connections, increase in relationship strength.” Clearly the Midnight Run organization does increase connections and relationships with the homeless.

I believe a gift economy is a good thing that gives back to the public. The Midnight Run organization is just one of thousands of examples of contributors to gift economies. I noticed that in most of the articles I read, they didn’t talk much about gift economies not having to be material. In my opinion, a gift economy does not have to be a material item. Contributing to a gift economy can be as simple as shoveling snow off the driveway of your elderly neighbor, or helping someone whose car broke down on the side of the road. Gift economies are becoming increasingly more common in today’s society. The gift economy is “coming back as we enter the information age,” states Pinchot. The current economy is shifting away from the industrial age and starting to focus more on the management of information—information and aid are being distributed to the public through gift economies.

Sources:

Kollock, Peter. (1999).The Economies of Online Cooperation: Gifts and Public Goods in Cyberspace. Retrieved on September 18, 2008, from http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/soc/faculty/kollock/papers/economies.htm

Pollard, Dave. (17 April 2005). How to Save the World: The Gift Economy. Retrieved on September 18^th, 2008, from

http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/2005/04/17.html

Pinchot, Gifford. (Summer 1995). The Gift Economy. Business on a Small Planet, 49. Retrieved September 18, 2008, from

http://www.context.org/ICLIB/IC41/PinchotG.htm

PS - IF ANYONE READING THIS LIVES IN LOWER WESTCHESTER COUNTY (NY) OR IS FROM NEW YORK CITY AND WOULD LIKE TO DO THESE RUNS, PLEASE VISIT THE WEBSITE FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SCHEDULING AND INFORMATION.