Perhaps it's not that old because there seems to be something very 20th-century and American about it: the idea of trying to get maximum return out of your time/money because time is money and money is time.

I'm not a philosopher and haven't analysed this very carefully, but the "lesson" implied by the story strikes me as not just trite but also wrong.

Perhaps I'm just too cynical or the examples chosen (parents, Christmas) are particularly off-putting for me.