The Effect of Lost Money

Next, we have the effects of money on the United States government during a shutdown. The first noticeable main effect of lost money is that of tax refunds. For instance, in 2013, $4 billion in tax refunds were delayed (Burwell, 2013). $4 billion is an outrageous amount of money to be delayed to American citizens, especially when this is their money. Imagine shopping at grocery store and going to check out when you have obtained all of the items you need. You hand the cashier your money, but instead of taking a few seconds to receive your change, it takes one week. In this scenario, not many people would be happy. This is precisely what happens with the delayed tax refund money. Even worse than $4 billion being delayed, $2 billion in tax refunds is lost in lost productivity (Burwell, 2013). Now, we are not only talking about delayed money, but lost money. Let us revisit the grocery store example again. Instead of the cashier taking one week to return your change, imagine not receiving your change at all! We as citizens might not realize this, but this is a major impact that these federal decisions have on us. It may be true that not every single law or bill passed might not affect certain people, but government shutdowns affect every tax paying citizen. On top of tax refund money being lost, we also see lost revenue within National Parks. Also during the 16 day shutdown in 2013, National Parks lost a total of $500 million in revenue (Burwell, 2013). Not only do these National Parks lose revenue, but they also close during the shutdown. This negatively affects tourism as well. Imagine taking a trip out to California to visit Yosemite National Park. You fly out to California, only to find out that the government has shut down after you land. Obviously this means that Yosemite is now closed, which creates two causes: 1. Revenue is lost that the tourist could have spent in Yosemite and the rest of California, and 2. This tourist will have a negative view of traveling and the government. We see major implications and effects in the loss of money, and those effects create a bad, long lasting taste in the mouths of American citizens.