The Economics of Memorial Day
Saige Angrick
Mrs. Straub
5/23/14
The Economics of Memorial Day
With Memorial Day this past week everyone thinks about the fact that not everyone is celebrating for the right reasons. Many people just use this for an excuse to go out and party and spend some time with your family when in reality it should be about our soldiers and everything that they have done for our country. The reality is that there is much more to Memorial Day than the remembrance of soldiers the economy of the United States is in a way reliant on this holiday. Memorial Day has always been known as the unofficial start to summer in which many families will start to go on their summer vacations and have to fill up their gas tanks with the prices at their peak price of the year.
For many economists this is how they will decide how the rest of the year will do. From how much people party and barbeque and do all sorts of other things this will only grow when it comes to the fourth of July and other summer holidays. For the government the opportunity costwill be $700 million because the majority of the federal workers get a paid vacation on Memorial Day. The government has such a giant opportunity cost when it comes to the work that could have gotten done in that one day but since this is federal holiday all of these people and millions of other people who are also getting paid vacations are going through the same problem of choosing what do this on their extended weekend. This will just add to the national debt and deficit because this has been planned before and is part of the budget at the beginning of the year. According to dailyfinance.com it is estimated that this Memorial Day weekend will show a 3% increase in retail sales. Since there is also a much higher consumer confidence this year the food sales will be up about 14.8 billion dollars from last year. Since so many cities are reliant on their tourism through the summer many cities are hopeful since this year because many more people are willing to go on vacations now that the economy is on the upswing. The meat industry is also starting to struggle after a long winter with so many people eating less meat the season of grilling is finally upon us and the meat industry is looking forward to the increase in prices and sales through the summer. The price is going to go up because of the demand for meat at this time of year. Without a grill many people cannot grill and with people buying a new grill about every 2 years grill sales are expected to grow 10.7% by the year 2015. This will add to international trade because imports of grills alone added up to 2.33 billion dollars. The use of public goods will also rise at this point because now more than ever places like beaches and parks. All of this helps the economy and proves that in a way the economy in a way is reliant on Memorial Day and other summer holidays.
No one is thinking about the economics of Memorial Day while it is happening they are just enjoying the smell of delicious food and eating the food that is front of them. The truth is that although no one is thinking about economics while they are celebrating Memorial Day without economics Memorial Day most likely wouldn’t be able to happen as well. The thought of how dependent on this small holiday is scary in the thoughts on not knowing what will happen if this holiday were to go away or if people were to stop celebrating this holiday.
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