What is the sum total of all of the transactions that took place in
the United States for any of the last 5 years.  I'm not looking for
the GDP or GNP, but the total dollars that exchanged hands for goods
throughout the distribution chain, services, payroll, leases, rent,
stocks, bonds, dividends, interest, charitible contributions,
insurance premiums and claims, legal settlements, barter value,
foreign trade, etc., etc.  About the only amounts that should not
contribute to the total are the principal amounts of loans and
mortgages, the underlying transactions of which are included above.  I
don't think any agency publishes a figure for US gross receipts,
although it would seem that it should be the starting point for
calculating indicators such as the GNP.

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Clarification of Question by veloman-ga on 02 Aug 2004 17:01 PDT

The gross receipts figure should not include taxes or duties levied by
any domestic or foreign governmental authority.
Nor should it include any deposits or transfers which do not represent
an exchange between persons or entities.

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Request for Question Clarification by pafalafa-ga on 02 Aug 2004 18:11 PDT

veloman-ga,

Pardon the lengthy list here, but I couldn't think of any easy
alternative way to let you know what's available out there.

The GDP data for the US are comprised of a whole lot of
sub-categories, each of which is itemized for the amount it
contributes to overall GDP.  The main categories are:

     Gross domestic product..........
 
Personal consumption expenditures....
 
  Durable goods......................
    Motor vehicles and parts.........
    Furniture and household          
     equipment.......................
    Other............................
 
  Nondurable goods...................
    Food.............................
    Clothing and shoes...............
    Gasoline, fuel oil, and other    
     energy goods....................
    Other............................
 
  Services...........................
    Housing..........................
    Household operation..............
      Electricity and gas............
      Other household operation......
    Transportation...................
    Medical care.....................
    Recreation.......................
    Other............................
 
Gross private domestic investment....
 
  Fixed investment...................
    Nonresidential...................
      Structures.....................
      Equipment and software.........
        Information processing       
         equipment and software......
          Computers and peripheral   
           equipment.................
          Software...................
          Other......................
        Industrial equipment.........
        Transportation equipment.....
        Other equipment..............
    Residential......................
 
  Change in private inventories......
    Farm.............................
    Nonfarm..........................
 
Net exports of goods and services....
 
  Exports............................
    Goods............................
    Services.........................
 
  Imports............................
    Goods............................
    Services.........................
 
Government consumption expenditures  
 and gross investment................
 
  Federal............................
    National defense.................
      Consumption expenditures.......
      Gross investment...............
    Nondefense.......................
      Consumption expenditures.......
      Gross investment...............
 
  State and local....................
      Consumption expenditures.......
      Gross investment...............

==========


Would having access to the detailed data meet your needs?  You could
then total up any of the compenents that meet your criteria for "gross
receipts" and exclude any items that are not of interest.


Let me know what you think.  

pafalafa-ga

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Clarification of Question by veloman-ga on 02 Aug 2004 21:22 PDT

pafalafa:

Neither the GNP or GDP can be used to calculate gross receipts because
they are subsets of gross receipts.  Gross reciepts include the value
of charitable contributions, stock market trades, legal settlements,
etc. where the GNP and GDP do not.

Moreover, the GNP and GDP indicators consider only the value of the
final product, not the cascading transactions behind the product's
components.  For example, the GDP might calculate a value of $35.00
for a toaster.  But the gross receipt transactions add together all
the transactions that were necessary to bring the toaster to market. 
Consider this hypothetical example:

All the parts that made the toaster, $10.00
The manufacturer's sale of the toaster to a distributor, $12.00
The distributor's sale of the toaster to a department store, $15.00, 
The store's sale of the toaster to the consumer, $35.00.
  
Adding all these transactions together yields the gross receipts
generated by bringing the toaster to market, which in this example is
$72.00.

While it is virtually impossible to trace the entire complexity of
transactions associated with making each US product, the gross
receipts for a country are best calculated by adding up all of the
transactions made by the private sector and the government that are
included in my original question and its clarifications.

I think I understand why you do not want to include principle on
mortgages and loans. It seems there are other items such as deposits
which are returned when the transaction is not completed and payroll
deductions which are returned in the form of tax refunds. Also amounts
transfered from one account to another except when the tranfer
represents a payment for goods or services. If it can be determined
which of these are included in the GDP and how much they total, gross
receipts can be determined by subtraction. There are perhaps thousands
of other hopefully small amounts you may not want to include. Illegal
transactions in cash and kind need to be estimated and included IMHO.
You may want to cancel and ask again in slightly different words. 
Neil