Cupid Shot An Arrow Through Your Wallet: a study on why Valentine's Day is a Scam

As many of you probably know by now, I don't celebrate Valentine's Day. Other than the obvious dark pagan origins, I believe it's become a highly commercialized day of forced love. Valentine’s Day is a booming multi-billion dollar industry. In 2018, the U.S. sales generated from Valentine's Day gift purchases rounded out to a figure of 20.1 billion dollars. (For comparison, that’s about four times more than our government spends fighting cancer annually.) The Greeting Card Association states approximately 190 million Valentine’s Day cards are brought each year, excluding the hundreds of millions that schoolchildren exchange with each other. And how can you forget the florists? It's the number one holiday for florists, with more than 198 million roses produced yearly for this day. I don't mean to sound anti-love, I'm anything but. However, Valentine's day isn't truly about love; it's about masking a corporate, consumerist holiday in the name of love. Here are my top five reasons why Valentine's Day is a total scam:

1. High Expectations For No Reason
I feel like from day one we've been given a script on how this day should play out. Relationships are full of rules you're supposed to buy into: don't double text, always buy a bouquet of roses, plan a huge proposal, etc. Well, Valentine’s Day is basically an exercise in exploiting the uncertainty that come with relationships- particularly new ones. If you're with someone right now, chances are it's because he/she actually loves you for who you are. I highly doubt the sole base of that love came from giving a huge stuffed bear that said "Hug Me" on Valentine's Day.

2. The Price of "Love" Gets Expensive
Valentine's Day is just like any regular day except that it has been commercialized. You don’t need to spend your money on presents with temporary marked up prices that don’t have much sentiment. By that, I mean the overpriced roses, candy hearts, vaguely worded cards, and assorted chocolates. According to WalletHub, the average person spends about $150 each Valentine's Day. This holiday may not be for singles, but it’s not for the broke either. The strength of your relationship shouldn’t be based on how much money you spend. Instead, try to spend less money and more time together in general.

3. High Price Low Service at Restaurants
Speaking of overpriced items, making dinner reservations anywhere presentable is a ridiculous rip off on the 14th. Since dinner is usually a given date idea, reservations go pretty fast weeks before. Not to mention the servers are swamped, so the chances they’ll mess up are more than usual. Basically, you pay three times the amount you'd pay for the same dinner on any other day to eat in a space crowded with other couples on the same boat as you. There's nothing less romantic than being surrounded by too many people.

4. Relationships Become Competition 
Everyone wants to make it as seem as their life is perfect. Every social media post is filled with what they got for Valentine's Day, what their plans are, and basically how much fun they're having gushing over each other. In reality, if you took an actual snapshot of these couples, they'd be on their phones far from a real conversation. However, social media only shows the best highlights of people's lives.  We all inwardly become competitors. Others may mistake these highlights as the whole package, and it makes their life seem dull in comparison. Everything you do on this day is supposed to come from the heart, but that’s hardly how it goes down. Holidays like this one turn acts of affection into games of jealousy if those acts don’t live up to those posted on social media.

5. Having a Date is Not An Actual Goal
Having a date on this day has become a status symbol more than anything else. Meaning if you're taken, then you're somehow better and more accomplished than your single friends. Obviously, this is total bull crap. Yet, I see both men and women scramming to find a date for this day to help feel better about themselves. It is incredibly important to love and be happy with yourself first. If you don’t, you can’t be a happy person or develop healthy relationships. Happiness comes from within. So why isn’t the holiday all about love not promoting this? Single beings shouldn’t be made to feel inadequate.

I did not write this post to tell you to stop giving affection to your significant other on Valentine’s Day, but to say that you should show your love everyday of the year. This date is as ordinary as any other and truly holds no significance or value to your love for one another.