The Donation-Payment Gift Card Concept how to give twice with one card.pdf

The Donation-Payment Gift Card Concept: how to give twice with one card R. Crane1, J. Escobar1 and D. Sornette2,3 1 Department of Physics and Astronomy University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095 2Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics and Department of Earth and Space Science University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095. 3Laboratoire de Physique de la Matière Condensée CNRS UMR6622 and Université des Sciences, B.P. 70, Parc Valrose 06108 Nice Cedex 2, France E-mails: rcrane@, escobar@, sornette@ Abstract. Currently, there are large amounts of unused funds associated with Pre-paid Stored Value cards. These funds are being claimed by either the companies that issue the cards, or State Governments. This has given rise to many complicated legal issues whose outcome does not remove the basic fact that the consumer has no power of decision over the final destination of these funds. We propose a Donation-Payment card that automatically donates all unused funds to the consumer’s preferred charity, which reinstates their choice and resonates with the innate altruistic human desire. The partnership with charities should increase significantly the number of people who use this Pre-paid Stored Value card, ensuring its development as the fastest growing new payment instrument to arrive since the introduction of debit cards. Introduction Standard economic theory, starting with Adam Smith’s invisible hand, holds that those who trade for their own selfish motives of maximizing their private preferences may contribute more to the public wealth than those who claim altruistic motives. Under restrictive conditions, this has been shown to result from a self-organizing mechanism acting at the global system level, which ensures that optimal allocation of resources derives from competition within the rule of law. In a nutshell, according to this view, being competitively selfish adds value for all.