Today’s forecast calls for a total eclipse of the… American economy? Human resources firm Challenger, Gray, & Christmas, Inc. predicts that the eclipse will cause $694 million in lost productivity.
The company arrives at that estimate by supposing each and every American worker takes 20 minutes away from work to watch the Great American Eclipse. Individual experiences will vary widely. Some people will take time off from work to travel to the path of totality, while others might just look out their windows for a couple minutes and then get back to work.
While millions of us will certainly grab our eclipse glasses and head outside for the big event, not everyone will be able to do so. Will our nation’s surgeons drop their scalpels, pop outside the hospital for a few minutes, then come back in and keep operating? I sure hope not.
Factories may choose not to shut down production lines, meaning that manufacturing workers will need to stay at their stations during the event. Ideally, people would be able to take at least a few minutes to watch the eclipse pass over, but we know that not everyone is so fortunate.
Let’s say we all go eclipse-crazy and even those who don’t watch it eventually do spend time reading about it, talking about it, and (let’s be real here) checking Instagram to see photos from around the country. If there were no eclipse, would we spend all that time working? Probably not.
Recode notes that, without the eclipse, we’d probably fritter away that “lost” productivity on something else. Companies lose productivity when people shop online or read non-work-related articles (like this one! Caught you!) No employee is 100 percent productive, 100 percent of the time; the human brain needs breaks to keep itself in tip-top shape. Instead of spending those 20 minutes discussing Game of Thrones or shopping online per usual, you’ll spend them on the eclipse today.
In addition, the hefty price tag for the eclipse fails to take into account that a celestial event also boosts certain parts of the economy. Hotels and restaurants in the path of totality will be swamped with visitors – visitors who are solely there for the eclipse and wouldn’t have spent money there otherwise.
Even if the estimate is correct, a $694 million loss is far from disastrous. The Super Bowl caused around $1 billion in lost productivity. That’s significantly more than what we’ll lose from the eclipse, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the Comey hearings, which caused $3.3 billion in lost productivity.
The eclipse will draw millions of Americans outside of their offices and into a rare experience that we can share together. The last time this happened, there was no social media; now, we’ll get to see the eclipse through the eyes of our fellow citizens from Seattle to Charleston and everywhere in between. We’ll get to marvel at something that makes us feel small, and we’ll get to do it together. In a time when our nation is so divided, something for us to all come together and enjoy is very welcomed. $694 million for all of that goodness? Sounds like a bargain to me.
