How can you quantify the “social impact” of a single individual? For instance, how much of an impact does Britney Spears have on “society”? (And, yes, those and other quotes that you see in this post are meant to convey vast depths of sarcasm).
An economist could argue that Britney’s worth to society would be her income. The reasoning behind that is that if she were worth less to society, society would simply not pay her so much. If she was worth more to society, Britney would, because she is clearly a rational utility-maximizing individual, find some way to extract from society her true value in the form of a higher income.
Even if we put aside moral issues with this definition of value to society, any careful observer will notice that Britney does more than just “add value” equal to her income. For example, she was a popstar, meaning her “work” rakes in extra money for the record label. Her face and escapades become the “incomes” of paparazzi and celebrity gossip columnists. Her “image” backs her perfume lines and her appearances in advertisements. These cannot all be directly attributed to her (i.e. she did not set up the record label, she did not write the columns dedicated to “her life”, etc.), so her income doesn’t necessarily reflect these, but it can at least be said that Britney enables a whole world of economic activity which (*drumroll*) Conde Nast’s Portfolio.com estimates to be worth over $110 million. (Hat tip: Freakonomics)
This is how big she is:
A celebrity tabloid with Britney Spears on the cover sells 1.28 million newsstand copies, some 33 percent more than the average. Between January 2006 and July 2007, Britney was a cover subject of People, Us Weekly, In Touch, Life & Style, OK!, or Star a total of 175 times in just 78 weeks. During that period, newsstand sales of issues with her on the cover amounted to a staggering $360 million. She’s also topped the annual Yahoo Search rankings in six of the past seven years, slipping to No. 2 only in 2004, when Paris Hilton briefly stole her crown. Searches for Britney were up 60 percent in 2007, the year of her divorce, shaved head, and car wreck. “If there was no Britney, would all Web traffic stop?” asks Vera Chan, senior editor at Yahoo. “I would hesitate to give her that much power, but it’s hard to argue with the facts.”
And the breakdown of this $110 million?
Estimated annual take (record company, promoters, licensers, and others): $30 million to $40 million
Estimated average annual take (Paparazzi): $4 million
Estimated average annual take (the Media): $75 million
Estimated average annual take (K-Fed): $1 million
Hit me baby one more time? No seriously. Hit me. Because this number can’t be real.