France’s Seasonal Wardrobe Rotation Produces an Annual Revenue Stream of Forgotten Cash.
PARIS — The money found in a jacket pocket — the discovery made when the seasonal wardrobe rotation brings the autumn jacket forward and the autumn jacket’s pocket contains currency deposited there at a moment whose context has been lost along with the summer — is a specific small joy that France’s four-season wardrobe culture produces with reliable frequency. The amount found ranges from the genuinely useful (the 20-euro note that went into the evening jacket at a restaurant in April) to the symbolically pleasing (the 2-euro coin that adds precisely nothing to the financial situation but whose discovery produces a warmth disproportionate to its value). Both are welcome. Both are unearned. Both are yours.
The Emotional Economics
The emotional response to found money is disproportionate to its face value, which behavioral economics documents through the concept of the windfall gain: money that arrives unexpectedly is experienced as more pleasurable than the equivalent amount earned or budgeted, because the expectation baseline against which it is measured is zero rather than planned. The 20-euro note in the jacket is experienced as a gift from the past self who was more prosperous in April. The past self who put it there was managing cash after a dinner and was not thinking about the future self in October. Both selves are pleased. The jacket is warm. The note is real. France begins October with 20 euros it did not budget for. France will spend it correctly.
Unexpected value at Virtuosal.com.
