by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Donald Trump and his administration gleefully released some good economic news this past week - the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rate had increased to over 4% per annum. That set me to thinking about the local economy where I live and what part it played in this rosy national economic snapshot.
West Plains, Missouri, has a few small factories that actually produce goods - including a Caterpillar plant which is the one employer where most of the local available work force lusts to work. There are also a good array of service providers doing everything from flipping burgers to cleaning septic tanks. And retail - well, we have a Walmart - and who could ask for anything more! For a community of 12,000 souls, West Plains is probably fairly typical as midwestern towns go.
But as I got to pondering local economic activity, I tried to focus on the commerce that I could actually see. I travel across the town every day, from one end of Porter Wagoner Boulevard to the other, with occasional stops along Preacher Roe Boulevard, the Jan Howard Expressway, and even Bill Virdon Avenue. I know where the citizens of West Plains are spending a large portion of their Caterpillar and Walmart paychecks. A big part of the disposable income of our local wage earners goes into the tills of the many convenience stores - primarily for lottery tickets.
People who rush into one of these local quick stops for a carton of milk or a pack of smokes, quickly realize that "convenience" isn't that much of a priority when they have to stand behind some retiree who is bent over the counter scratching off of his three lucky number sevens. And then, if he has a winner, he uses the winnings to buy more tickets and continues holding up the line.
Other lottery scratchers are more polite. They take their fistful of scratchers tickets out to their car where they can scratch in private. But again, if they find a winner, they head back into the store to re-invest their winnings. Nobody wins because they always buy more - hoping for that really big win.
The nation's convenience stores have become the equivalent of small town casinos.
Forty-four states and the District of Columbia have lotteries. Six states do not - as of yet - engage in this national mania: Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada, and Utah. In 2016 the people of the United States spent over $73 billion on lottery tickets - an average of $325 for every adult in the country. It's a huge business!
So, I wondered, what is the impact of the lottery on the Gross Domestic Product. Information, at least information that I could understand, was surprisingly limited on the subject. I learned that lottery winnings are not figured into the GDP because they represent a transfer payment by the government. The proceeds of legal gambling, however, are included in GDP - and that should include the sale of lottery tickets.
Donald Trump has a kick-ass GDP number, and at least part of his appreciation should go to my many friends and neighbors who stand at the convenience store counters faithfully scratching, and scratching, and scratching - and never taking their winnings to the bank - or spending them on vacations, home improvements, or educational opportunities for their kids and grandkids. Those folks are making America great again!
(And while Pa Rock holds himself well above the vulgar practice of ticket-scratching, at least in public he does admit to buying Missouri Lottery draw tickets, Powerball, and Megaball tickets on a regular basis. He wants to win millions - so much money that he does not have time left to sink all of his winnings back into the lottery. Pa Rock does his part to inflate the GDP and make America look great again, you betcha he does!)
Citizen Journalist
Donald Trump and his administration gleefully released some good economic news this past week - the U.S. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rate had increased to over 4% per annum. That set me to thinking about the local economy where I live and what part it played in this rosy national economic snapshot.
West Plains, Missouri, has a few small factories that actually produce goods - including a Caterpillar plant which is the one employer where most of the local available work force lusts to work. There are also a good array of service providers doing everything from flipping burgers to cleaning septic tanks. And retail - well, we have a Walmart - and who could ask for anything more! For a community of 12,000 souls, West Plains is probably fairly typical as midwestern towns go.
But as I got to pondering local economic activity, I tried to focus on the commerce that I could actually see. I travel across the town every day, from one end of Porter Wagoner Boulevard to the other, with occasional stops along Preacher Roe Boulevard, the Jan Howard Expressway, and even Bill Virdon Avenue. I know where the citizens of West Plains are spending a large portion of their Caterpillar and Walmart paychecks. A big part of the disposable income of our local wage earners goes into the tills of the many convenience stores - primarily for lottery tickets.
People who rush into one of these local quick stops for a carton of milk or a pack of smokes, quickly realize that "convenience" isn't that much of a priority when they have to stand behind some retiree who is bent over the counter scratching off of his three lucky number sevens. And then, if he has a winner, he uses the winnings to buy more tickets and continues holding up the line.
Other lottery scratchers are more polite. They take their fistful of scratchers tickets out to their car where they can scratch in private. But again, if they find a winner, they head back into the store to re-invest their winnings. Nobody wins because they always buy more - hoping for that really big win.
The nation's convenience stores have become the equivalent of small town casinos.
Forty-four states and the District of Columbia have lotteries. Six states do not - as of yet - engage in this national mania: Alabama, Alaska, Hawaii, Mississippi, Nevada, and Utah. In 2016 the people of the United States spent over $73 billion on lottery tickets - an average of $325 for every adult in the country. It's a huge business!
So, I wondered, what is the impact of the lottery on the Gross Domestic Product. Information, at least information that I could understand, was surprisingly limited on the subject. I learned that lottery winnings are not figured into the GDP because they represent a transfer payment by the government. The proceeds of legal gambling, however, are included in GDP - and that should include the sale of lottery tickets.
Donald Trump has a kick-ass GDP number, and at least part of his appreciation should go to my many friends and neighbors who stand at the convenience store counters faithfully scratching, and scratching, and scratching - and never taking their winnings to the bank - or spending them on vacations, home improvements, or educational opportunities for their kids and grandkids. Those folks are making America great again!
(And while Pa Rock holds himself well above the vulgar practice of ticket-scratching, at least in public he does admit to buying Missouri Lottery draw tickets, Powerball, and Megaball tickets on a regular basis. He wants to win millions - so much money that he does not have time left to sink all of his winnings back into the lottery. Pa Rock does his part to inflate the GDP and make America look great again, you betcha he does!)
1 comment:
Good luck with that, Rock!! But I hope you win. I gave up on the Florida lottery about 10 years ago.
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