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The Finance Scape of Hunting in the United States
When posed the original task of finding a sport interesting enough to write about through
three different lenses, I like many other students was challenged to find an activity in which we
could research, contrast and argument and present three times throughout the semester. I was
hoping to do a sport that would be refreshing and would challenge the “Claremont Bubble” that
has begun to evolve around me. As someone who had grown up in a Central Pennsylvanian
community that very much like many rural areas of Appalachia, I was interested in reporting on
my region which I feel is incredibly under represented. The town was crazy about two sports
(besides college football) that was very much unique to the Southern/Appalachian way of life,
NASCAR and hunting. I decided that while NASCAR does have large implications on the
greater society there was too little of a personal connection for me to write a high quality report,
for this reason I decided to go with the often controversial sport of hunting in America.
It should be noted to the reader that while I do intend to show off the macroeconomic
value to the American economic system I will also be putting under the microscope the
municipal economic systems that benefit from hunting and I will be using my personal
experience in my hometown of Hamburg, Pennsylvania to provide an interesting field
perspective, adding a humanity element to an otherwise metric driven topic. I will examine
throughout this topic the significance of hunting on the economy and why hunting is a growing
tradition amongst Americans and why hunting is arguably the single most powerful sport in the
entire United States and is on a trajectory of expansion and has been significantly rising through
the last decade.
When looking through the entire scope for the finances of the hunting industry it is
important for categorization purposes to break the macroeconomic, microeconomic, and non-
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profit economics down so that every last detail of dollars spent is covered throughout this paper
and that there can be a clear trace of financial impact.in all regards to society. It should also be
noted there is a large movement of people who are vastly opposed to hunting and would like to
counter the economic benefits of hunting. As was mentioned, the sport is extremely controversial
and has caused much debate and internal rift within the country. As the controversy is an
anthropological byproduct of the sport it is critical that I mention both sides, and ensure that both
sides with be included where appropriate.
United States Economics
The United States’ economy is greatly bolstered by the tradition of hunting, in fact the
government itself benefits wildly from the increased revenue found from game licenses, sales
taxes on weapons, and the income taxes on the jobs created as a result of the hunting industry.
