Workin' For The Weekend - Talk Amongst Yourselves

I want to go a bit off the beaten path this week, and something like this might get spun off into its own weekly post at some point. This is more of a conversation starter, something to get your mind going for the weekend.

You may remember several years ago an episode of Seinfeld where Jerry and George can't decide what to get Elaine for her birthday. So instead of buying a gift, they both just give her cash, Jerry giving her $182, and George $91 since he wasn't as close a friend to her. And of course Elaine flips out on how thoughtless and insensitive that gift was.

Flash forward to the present. Over the past 10 years or so, the whole giftcard thing has just skyrocketed. Can't decide what to get someone? Give them a gift card to their favorite store, make them choose it themselves!

So here's my question: how is this any different than just giving someone cash? In fact, isn't it even worse than straight cash? Aren't you basically telling someone, 'I don't have the creativity to buy you something I think you'd want, so I'll just give you money for you to buy something, but you can only spend it at this one store'? Does the actual check or green dollar bills make it so much colder than the card?

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm feeling verklempt, there's too much shpilkis in my gynectikazoid. Discuss!