Well, I think it’s fairer to say that I’m using the dictionary definition of words, in a situation where the BEA is using its own special definitions, without saying so, or saying what they are.
Disposable income, to my understanding, is income after taxes. If it has a different definition, I’m happy to learn what it is.
Outlays I’m not so clear about. I’ve already cited it’s dictionary definition (“an amount of money spent on something”), but from this thread I’ve gleaned that the BEA uses the word to mean (mostly) money spent on consumption, rather than investment.
However, that doesn’t help much, because they also appear to have their own definitions of “consumption” and “investment”. For example, buying stocks is not considered “investment,” and buying a home is considered “investment,” but only if no one has lived there before.
Anyway, I don’t necessarily disagree with what the BEA (or other economists) are doing. But I do think if you use words that are different from, or the opposite of, their ordinary meaning, you should probably expect a certain amount of confusion.
I’m not really sure what you mean. The ordinary meaning of expenditure is the act of spending funds. If that’s what you mean, then you’re saying spending money on stocks is spending money on stocks. If you mean something else, please tell me what it is. I’m not sure why you used the phrase “personal cash” (as opposed to what? credit cards? debit cards? checks?), and I’m not sure what the number of times the word “spending” appears in a report has to do with anything.
I get all of that, but “outlays” seems to be the slippery word here. Clearly, the BEA is using “outlays” in a non-standard way: to mean spending on consumption, as opposed to investment. But to complicate matters, they seem to be using “consumption” and “investment” in non-standard ways as well. Using the word “outlays” without explaining what it means, or without explaining what they mean by “consumption” and “investment” doesn’t explain much at all.