So, I was scrolling through the news today and came across an article stating that Taylor Swift’s tour is expected to boost UK spending by a whopping £1bn. 💸 Now, hold up a second. How does this work exactly? 🤔 Is this money just magically appearing out of thin air or are there some sneaky tricks at play?
According to the BBC article I read, there are a few possibilities. It could be that the £1bn is coming from existing discretionary spending that’s being diverted from other things. Or maybe people are working overtime, dipping into their savings, or even selling possessions to afford those concert tickets. And let’s not forget about the good ol’ credit card debt or overdraft option. 💳💸
So here’s my burning question: what do statements like this really mean? Are we all just spending money we don’t have, or is it a clever economic game at play? Let’s dive into this together and figure it out! 💡
What do you think is the main source of this extra spending due to Taylor Swift’s tour? Let’s discuss and unravel this mystery! 🕵️♀️💭 #EngageWithMe 🤗
Mostly A. Which is why these types of articles are mostly bad economics. It could “boost the economy” if we were talking about some particular location where the tour was being held and a lot of outsiders were coming in. But when that are talking about the UK during a European tour they are almost completely talking about the redirection in time and space of money spent by some British people.
The actual economic benefit of Tay Tay is that people enjoy her music and by spending on her show are telling us that improves their welfare over whatever else they could be spending on. Whatever that differential is, which admittedly is basically impossible to measure, would be the actual benefit to the consumers but not to “the economy” because they were still going to spend their resources mostly locally anyways.
It’s most likely just the number of estimated attendees multiplied by
>with fans expected to spend an average of £848 on tickets, travel, accommodation and outfits,
It’s not that deep. Obviously it’s entirely unrealistic to expect that all of this is “new” spending.
I guess the ultimate economic value of the Taylor Swift tour is how much is the experience of seeing her on stage actually worth in terms of £.
We don’t consume money: we consume goods and services. Taylor has produced the ‘service’ of a concert: how much is that worth?