Here's the scoop on: Drake's, "God's Plan"

Not only did Drake’s new hit single, “God’s Plan," clinch the number one spot on numerous airplay charts, his music video has generated even more buzz with over 129 million views on YouTube. As you have most likely heard, Drake generously gave away the entirety of his $996,631.90 music video budget to a variety of causes and unsuspecting fans in the Miami area. I found this as a perfect opportunity to explain the important concept of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with the help of Drake's generosity. So, here’s the scoop on how the generous acts of the production of “God’s Plan” affected the United State’s 2017 GDP.

GDP is one of the most important macroeconomic statistics. Simply put, it is a way to measure a nation's total production of goods and services; and in that way, we can compare past years’ GDPs to measure things like economic growth and inflation. There are four factors that affect GDP: consumer spending, investments, government purchases, and net exports. In theory, the greater the GDP, the better the economy. So, now that you have the concept of GDP down, let’s see how Drake contributed to it through “God’s Plan.”

The first, and largest, contributions Drake made to 2017 GDP were through consumer spending. The list is quite extensive. First, he treated dozens of customers of a local grocery store to unlimited groceries. Next, he surprised women from Lotus House Women’s Shelter to a shopping trip at Saks Fifth Avenue and paid for every penny of it. He then gave hundreds of presents away to underprivileged children and surprised two deserving fans with brand new cars. Lastly, he gave an incredible $50,000 scholarship to a pre-dental student at the University of Miami.

Drake also donated a new van to the Overtown Youth Center to help with their services. Since the van serves a purpose to this organization and helps them do their job better, it

would be considered and investment. And as you know, investments raise GDP. Drake continued to make several more contributions that didn't quite directly affect GDP, but are still worthy to note.

When Drake hit the streets of Miami he gave away thousands of dollars to unsuspected fans. He then continued to donate $50,000 to the Lotus House Women’s Shelter, $20,000 to the City of Miami Fire Department and $25,000 to a local high school’s after school program. While these donations don’t directly increase GDP because they are only considered a redistribution of wealth, it was obvious to see he did make a lot of people happy- and that is what really counts.

One downside of GDP is that it doesn’t account for a lot of factors that also affect the overall well being of a country like income distribution, education, housework, and leisure time; and it is most important to note that GDP doesn’t measure happiness. Even though Drake generously gave away close to one million dollars, what he was really giving these people was joy. I would estimate that Drake directly contributed about $850,000 to the United State’s 2017 GDP. However, the joy he brought to his fans was truly priceless.

Check out the music video for "God's Plan" here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpVfcZ0ZcFM