What's the Difference Between a Broadway Show and a Soybean?
8/2/18
If you're talking trade policy, not as much you might think.
Huh?
It’s easy to visualize how shipping soybeans from the United States to China improves the trade balance. No matter what path that soybean takes, Chinese people are paying U.S. farmers for some of what we grow in this country and ship out.
Soybeans sold. Yuan and dollars in. American jobs created.
Although it doesn’t seem that way, some Broadway tickets are exports too. How? Chinese citizens are granted a 10-year visa for the USA now, which has encouraged visitation. New York is their most desired vacation and currently welcomes about a million Chinese tourists a year. Some portion of those Chinese tourists buy theatre tickets, paying U.S. theatre makers for what we create in this country.
So to an economist, if a visitor from China comes to New York and sees The Phantom of the Opera, that ticket is actually an export, just like a soybean. A soybean that sings and dances.
Theatre ticket sold. Yuan and dollars in. American jobs created.
But there is one very real difference. The bean is an export that the federal government will protect against the ravages of a trade war, but a Broadway show is an export that’s simply at-risk. China could discourage travel to the U.S. at any time, but it sure is hard to imagine any bailout for our export. For that, it’s better to be a soybean.
For more information on the Shubert Organization, visit www.shubert.nyc.
Huh?
It’s easy to visualize how shipping soybeans from the United States to China improves the trade balance. No matter what path that soybean takes, Chinese people are paying U.S. farmers for some of what we grow in this country and ship out.
Soybeans sold. Yuan and dollars in. American jobs created.
Although it doesn’t seem that way, some Broadway tickets are exports too. How? Chinese citizens are granted a 10-year visa for the USA now, which has encouraged visitation. New York is their most desired vacation and currently welcomes about a million Chinese tourists a year. Some portion of those Chinese tourists buy theatre tickets, paying U.S. theatre makers for what we create in this country.
So to an economist, if a visitor from China comes to New York and sees The Phantom of the Opera, that ticket is actually an export, just like a soybean. A soybean that sings and dances.
Theatre ticket sold. Yuan and dollars in. American jobs created.
But there is one very real difference. The bean is an export that the federal government will protect against the ravages of a trade war, but a Broadway show is an export that’s simply at-risk. China could discourage travel to the U.S. at any time, but it sure is hard to imagine any bailout for our export. For that, it’s better to be a soybean.
For more information on the Shubert Organization, visit www.shubert.nyc.
Originally published in Broadway Briefing.
