Santa's little helper

How can you put a price on a child’s smile?

-- I rigorously prove the case for a tax incentive for Christmas gift-giving in my Saturday column.

FLABBERGASTEDATE: There's an old journalistic saw that no satire is so broad that it can't elude at least half your readers. Even so, I debated with myself before including the last line in Saturday's column, in which I "reveal" that it was all a joke. Surely to God no one would need such heavy-handed instruction?

Oh yes they would. Even knowing the history of these things, I was astonished to find how many readers swallowed my preposterousness ("There is reason to believe that Canada is significantly under-gifted") whole. For pity's sake, people: Shopping as the "engine" of our prosperity? A remote-controlled monster truck as a "gift that lasts a lifetime"? Bicycles as a cure for hair loss? Wine as an area of "emerging comparative advantage" for Canada?

The worst of it is that even with the last-line tipoff, many of you still thought I was serious. Does no one read any more?