Tricks and Treats

The origins of Halloween reportedly can be traced back over 2,000 years to a pre-Christian Celtic Festival celebrating summer's end.

Trick or treating by children in costumes did not begin in the United States until World War II.

Halloween is now big business. An estimated $9 billion will be spent this year on Halloween in the United States on costumes, cards, decorations and candy.

In my recent visit to China I was surprised to see that Halloween has also become big business there as well. I came across several shops in Shanghai peddling Halloween decorations. I guess it makes sense. They are making most of the stuff. It stands to reason they would start buying it as well.

Halloween Store in Shanghai, China

However, the Halloween factoid that I found most interesting is the fact that Americans will spend an estimated $500 million this year on costumes for their pets! It is estimated that this will be done by 31 million Americans.

What is fueling this trend? A big factor is the Millennial generation who want to post a picture of their pet on social media sites such as Instagram.

The most popular pet costumes characters are pumpkin, hot dog, bumble bee, devil and cat (for dogs).

Credit; Patch.com

What more do you need to know that Americans have a pretty good thing going in our standard of living that we can spend $500 million on Halloween costumes for pets?

Of course, at the same time, 25% of these Millennials state that they are suffering PTSD because of the 2016 elections.

It makes you wonder what the PTSD percentage will be if Republicans hold on to control of the House and Senate in the midterms.

Considering that level of angst, I found these early voting totals as of this morning in the battleground states of Florida, Arizona and Nevada to be interesting. Here is the breakdown by age on those who have voted thus far in those key swing states.

Florida    Ages 18-29   7.6% of total votes   Ages 60+  60% of total votes
Nevada   Ages  18-29   5.0% of total votes   Ages 60+  59% of total votes
NC          Ages  18-29   6.4% of total votes    Ages 60+  58% of total votes

The 60+ age group usually votes much more for Republicans while the 18-29 vote is typically solidly in favor of Democrats.  Democrats need high turnouts of young voters and minorities to create a blue wave.

To put those numbers in context, when Barack Obama won in the Democratic wave election in 2008, the age 18-29 demographic made up 19% of total votes.

If the 18-29 age turnout is not considerably better than what we are seeing in these three states when the final vote tally on November 6 is counted, the trick will be on those PTSD Millennials. The treats will likely go to all the Republicans.

Read my blog post on "Blue Wave of Red Wall" to understand how important turnout is among various demographic groups in determining election results in midterm elections.