Should the U.S. sue Balloon Boy's dad for $2.8 billion in lost productivity?
Filed under: People
On the afternoon of Oct. 15, the world suddenly became spellbound -- focusing its attention on a shiny, oversized tinfoil popover that supposedly contained a six-year-old named Falcon Heene -- the so-called Balloon Boy. I estimate that the time Americans in the workforce spent watching Balloon Boy coverage on TV and the Internet cost $2.8 billion in lost productivity. Should Heene's bad dad pay for this?
Before examining this, let's talk about what the Balloon Boy caper cost society. This idea came to me by way of Canada's Macleans, which interviewed me about this last week. It occurred to me that one way to measure the cost would be to estimate the lost economic output from people who stopped working and started watching.
To reach that $2.8 billion, I estimated the U.S. GDP per hour: $53.61 ($7.1 billion = $14,151 billion/250 work-days/8 work-hours/day) per worker (132 million) and multiplied that by the number of workers distracted by watching the bubble boy: 26.4 million (20 percent of the workforce) times the number of hours they were distracted: 2 hours. (I acknowledge my assumptions could be wrong. The estimated percentage of the workforce watching is just my guess -- but if you disagree, you can plug in your own numbers and recalculate.)
Who should pay for this lost productivity? In practice nobody will pay for it. But in theory, I think the cost should be split 40 percent by Balloon Boy's family, who conceived and executed the scam, 40 percent by the media that decided to broadcast it uninterrupted for at least two hours, and 20 percent by those workers who should have been working but could not tear themselves away from the coverage.
What do you think?
Peter Cohan is a management consultant, Babson professor, and author of nine books, including Capital Rising (due in June 2010). Follow him on Twitter.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
10-25-2009 @ 2:10PM
rob said...
Really? I thought the exact opposite. Although they may have wasted law enforcement money, they created an immense amount of value for news (and entertainment news) organizations, by providing them with content. I found the story fun to watch (yes I was sure it was a hoax from the beginning)...so calling that "lost productivity" is silly. I am not ashamed to say that I would prefer watch the balloon boy story unfold than watch news about the latest murder in Oakland or the latest car bomb in Baghdad.
Think about it. You could consider anything I find fun to be "lost productivity". Think how much productivity is lost each year by people, say, going to parks and enjoying nature. If only those parks didn't exist, or weren't as pleasant, those people would be hard at work making our economy better so they can....ummm....work more.
But you wouldn't say that, because apparently going to parks is "good" fun, and watching and reading about bizarre and hilarious real life stories (including what I am doing now, reading THIS VERY STORY) is not "good."
Didja think this through before you posted it?
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10-25-2009 @ 7:47PM
Frank said...
Both the article and the various replies are an interesting mindgame -- assigning blame and liability for the stupid and venal things people do -- and point out how interconnected we all are. I think what the incident truly shows is how 'corruptible' (sometimes by accident, often on purpose) the 'power of the media is.' True, the 'workers' should have said to themselves, "It is none of my business whether or not this child, through the actions or inactions of his bone-headed father, lives or dies; back to the grindstone." Yet, the parents could rely on the hunger of 'the media', knowing that 'the media' could count on the herd-like stare of the populace. (Somebody do research on whether more people warm-heartedly wanted the boy to be rescued or kind of hoped to be titillated by photos of his mutilated corpse.) (Somebody analyse whether or not the media followed and promoted the story because they 'thought they were helping rescue the boy', or they knew the nation's hearts would overflow -- or did somebody do the numbers on how much extra high-dollar adspace they could sell?) I do, certainly, hope they prosecute the parents to the FULLEST extent possible (THERE's a worthy lesson for the kids!) -- and I hope thereby that everybody else in the world will take note, and never do anything again which is stupid or venal.
10-26-2009 @ 12:06AM
tom said...
wow for that price i can have a bubble boy satilitte.it dont cost that much to launch a space shuttle.i say over paid and tring to over reach on the price(greedy gov.)
10-26-2009 @ 7:19AM
JimmyJam said...
I think my IQ lost 8 pts. when I read your comment. Of course they should pay- and go to jail. Message needs to be sent that people are to be held accountable for their actions. There's no accountability in society, people have little to fear for pulling crap like this. Little or no reprocussion for doing what they know damn well is wrong.
I believe the media should have to split it with them They are 90% of the reason people do this stuff, and why others do the evil things they do as well.
Take for instance the tragic Columbine School massacre. Had the media not covered it, do you believe there would have been the copycat shootings that followed.
The media is a BIG problem in the world today, accountability being the other.
10-26-2009 @ 2:58PM
Ryan said...
It seems that this argument is sifting towards a much greater and ideology challenging focus on media studies. Sure, some commentors noted that the dad should be responsible for direct costs such as rescue teams, etc. However, to challenge what is productive use and what is not productive use of the media challenges the American hegemonic way of life. Do people choose what they watch? Or it is controlled by the same 5-7 companies run by powerful white males?
Great post Peter, it really does challenge people in ways that might not jump out at first.
10-25-2009 @ 3:36PM
Alessandro Machi said...
I agree with Rob. Balloon Time created more attention for a relatively low cost which helped advertisers get more viewers when they cut to commercial breaks.
The guy produced amazing ratings for virtually no cost.
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10-25-2009 @ 4:53PM
tj said...
Should you be sued for $1 million dollars for people who wasted their time reading this article?
No wait... free country, your choice to watch, etc...
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10-25-2009 @ 11:42PM
Niki said...
Great answer. You made me laugh. Do you think we should be paid????
LOL
10-25-2009 @ 5:35PM
LCarrel said...
Peter, usually you're right on target, but I'm a little confused here. Could you tell me again? Why are people watching TV at work?
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10-25-2009 @ 5:49PM
Robert said...
rob lost the big picture and is talking only from his personal "what I find fun" point of view, he completely missed the point.
Balloon boy was forced down our throats like few international events of significance ever are. My experience was that people tweeted and blogs reported it, it wasted space in news papers, and then there's the double-whammy of the aftermath reporting (Oh, it was a hoax? Lets report that!). Coffee room chat for days. I tried to ignore it but couldn't.
It wasn't treated as a BAU news item. Hence the additional occupancy of airtime. It was a complete waste and there are many other events with arguably similar or greater costs to productivity, such as international sporting events (tired workers - that's a fact!), the continual reporting of anything to do with Michael Jackson, Tsunami warnings that don't pan out.
Here's the difference - here the guy was a perpetrator intentionally misleading everyone. It's criminal and I think he deserves to pay. The media are a pack of hounds and will follow anything, I don't really blame them. They weren't in on any conspiracy here.
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10-26-2009 @ 4:09AM
Jennifer said...
Excellent comment!
10-25-2009 @ 6:02PM
joshua said...
I saw the story...read it and decided I didn't care....why do u all have to be such pitiful slaves to the media....morons
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10-25-2009 @ 6:13PM
mike said...
I think the bill should be sent to the media outlets that were foolish enough to cover this crap. Perhaps doing the job of watchdog for all the crooks in Washington (not just one party) could keep them busy and give people objective information instead of being the mouthpiece of socialism...
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10-25-2009 @ 6:18PM
rob said...
Robert, I don't think I missed the point at all. I was not commenting from my "what I find fun" point of view, I was suggesting instead that the Peter was doing that (although replace "fun" with, presumably, "a good use of time")
The story was not forced down your throat. You can change the channel, navigate away from the web page, or walk away from conversations. Some of us found it interesting, that's why the media was covering it and people were talking about it.
Your only complaint seems to be that other people have different tastes than you. I'm sure you can find places online or in the real world where people want to talk about "serious" news, or whatever you deem more important that this story.
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10-25-2009 @ 6:24PM
Lord Enki said...
And just how do they expect him to pay that amount?
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10-25-2009 @ 6:24PM
leatherman1457 said...
I spent maybe 5 minutes on the story. when I saw the size of the baloon and how flimsy it was and a 40 to 50 lb boy. I said hoax in less then 1 minute. the baloon was way to small to carry a boy that size. If the kid weighed maybe 5 to 10 pounds than maybe. I saw,used common sense(which is something the police and 90% of all people in America lack) and turned the tv off and went on my way doing things that were much more constructive.
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10-25-2009 @ 6:24PM
ToMo said...
And who do we sue for the lost productivity from reading this crap? I'm thinking class action suit; this is a ridiculous article to waste my Sunday reading. See you in court.
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10-25-2009 @ 6:38PM
john said...
If he broke any laws, bust him, if not forget him, he's a zero and always will be.
It's the media who should be sued for impersonating journalists and delusions of competency for reporting the garbage without checking the facts.
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10-25-2009 @ 6:43PM
Rob G. said...
I think Balloon boy's dad should pay for the police and rescue efforts that cost all of the rest of us alot of tax dollars. As far as the news coverage goes, they thrive on this kind of stuff. If they think they can make a buck covering crap like this, it's their loss.
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10-25-2009 @ 6:48PM
Patricia said...
The young boy, Falcon, kept throwing up during the tv interview in the beginning...he knew it was all a lie and I think it was upsetting him. No one talks about that. Also, the father made a video using his three sons for YouTube...a rap song with vulgar words. What is up with him?
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