Wasted GDP

I'm in Arizona right now so any in depth blog would be a mere waste of vacation time. So I just wanted to share some of my thoughts during the trip down.

As stated last week, the topic for the week covers bad drivers. Instead of focusing on the poor driving skills of 1J in Idaho, the inability for people to understand and use the roundabout, the failure to use turn signals, and the bad habit of driving ten miles below the speed limit, I wanted to turn our attention to the consequences that take place as a result of these inept vehicle operators.

Just answer this question, on average, how much time do you lose per day as a result of bad drivers, whether being in a car wreck, waiting on a car wreck, stuck behind a senior citizen who somehow escaped from the nursing home. My estimation is about five minutes a day. It may be less in rural areas, and it may be a lot more in urban areas, but for this topic I'm just going to estimate 5 minutes as the approximate amount of time lost per person each day as a result of bad drivers.

The United States has about 300 million people in it. Let's just assume that maybe a third of them contribute to GDP. That leaves us with 100 million people. According to my calculations, that is about 500 million minutes per day that is lost as a result of poor drivers. That's 8.33 million hours a day that is wasted. and let's assume that the average pay per hour is $15, that's $125 million per day.

Here's something that is more astounding. With 8.33 million hours a day, you could supply more than 100 million full-time jobs.

So with unemployment that is as high as it is, it may be something to think about. People blame the economy for losing their jobs, but what if everyone who drove did not get their licenses from a box of Cracker Jacks?

It seems to me that this would be a solution to our most valuable resource...time. What would you do with all this extra time?

IBM employs 400,000 people. 100 million jobs would mean that the United States could sustain another 250 companies similar to IBM. Ruminate on that one.

So the next time you think about jumping into a car, keep in mind that the more people you slow down, the more damage you are doing do to our economy.

Disclaimer: My inabilities as a driver stem from being raised in South Carolina. Just because I'm from there does not mean that I was born for NASCAR.

Next weeks topic: TBA