# Total sales of goods and services in the US

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/total-sales-of-goods-and-services-in-the-us/742955>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 12, 2016, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/total-sales-of-goods-and-services-in-the-us/742955 "2016-01-12T19:34:43Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2016, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/total-sales-of-goods-and-services-in-the-us/742955/1 "2016-01-12T19:34:43Z")

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Is there a number maintained for the total sales of goods and service in the US. Every exchange of money for goods and services, interest, fees, stocks, bonds, everything. [Gross Output](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_output)seems close but apparently is only dealing with newly produced goods. I was just curious what the tax base be if there was a sales tax on every exchange of money for goods and services.

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**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2016, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/total-sales-of-goods-and-services-in-the-us/742955/2 "2016-01-12T22:50:37Z")

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Gross domestic product.

ETA: Though I guess that doesn’t count the secondary market.

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**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\
**Post date:** [January 12, 2016, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/total-sales-of-goods-and-services-in-the-us/742955/3 "2016-01-12T23:27:58Z")

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^  
It should. When reselling, the new value creation is the service of selling, which is always spanking brand new.

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**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/total-sales-of-goods-and-services-in-the-us/742955/4 "2016-01-13T00:59:04Z")

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GDP doesn’t include the intermediary sales such as raw materials to a manufacturer, or any re-sales of used products.

I don’t know if there is such a number.

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**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/total-sales-of-goods-and-services-in-the-us/742955/5 "2016-01-13T14:28:12Z")

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> [@the\_diego](#):
>
> It should. When reselling, the new value creation is the service of selling, which is always spanking brand new.

Yes, but the OP isn’t looking for just the value of the goods and services; he wants the value of all the transactions. So for things that are often traded more than once a year (like stock certificates) you’d have to count each sale individually.