It does go further than closed parks and tourist attractions though, just take a look at this thread, and razark. If this thing only lasts a couple of days then the effect will be minimal, but if it goes to twenty-one days like last time then there's going to be a lot of Americans who are going to be eating into their savings, and as such they are going to be reluctant to spend and that will have a knock on effect to businesses. It's not a big knock-on affect, it's not the end of the world for the US economy, but it's something that it could do without.
Then there's the knock-on effect that the shutdown has had on the view of the US government and its members by both the US people and the people of the world, when the last shutdown happened under Clinton it was widely acknowledged to be a factor that helped re-elect Clinton, because the Republicans were seen as being behind the shutdown and it hurt them. This time it's a bit less clear-cut as the Democrats are seen as being partly involved by refusing to negotiate, but nevertheless this will backfire on the Republicans badly, especially if they do go ahead and play chicken with the debt-ceiling in a fortnight.
So, short story long, whilst this might not be devastating for America and the world, it's troubling and bad news for those people who are either working without pay (and no guarantee of back-pay) or those who have been told that they have no work to do (and no pay to have), it's bad news for the Republicans who risk being fingered for this mess, and it's bad news for Americas standing in the world who are looking on in some confusion as to how this has been allowed to happen.
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