US States Renamed For Nations With Comparable GDPs

[Richard]

An interesting comparison based upon 2012 GDPs.

Richard

America’s Ridiculously Large, $16 Trillion Economy
AEI, 13 Feb 2014

The map was created by matching economic output in US states in 2012 to foreign countries with comparable GDPs, using BEA data for GDP by state here and GDP by country from the United Nations, via Wikipedia here. For each US state (and the District of Columbia), I tried to find the country closest in economic size in 2012 (measured by GDP), and for each state there was a country with a pretty close match – those countries are displayed in the map above and in the table below. Obviously, in some cases the closest match was a country that produced slightly more, or slightly less economic output in 2012 than a given US state.

It’s pretty amazing how ridiculously large the US economy is, and the map above helps put America’s GDP of $16.2 trillion in 2012 (and more than $17 trillion in Q4 2013) into perspective by comparing the GDP of US states to other country’s entire national GDP. For example:

1. America’s largest state economy is California, which produced $2.003 trillion of economic output in 2012, just slightly below Italy’s GDP in the same year of $2.013 trillion. In 2012, California would have been tied with Italy as the 9th largest economy in the world. And California’s population is only 38 million compared to Italy’s population of 61 million, which means California produces the same economic output as Italy with 37% fewer people. That’s a testament to the superior, world-class productivity of the American worker.

2. America’s second largest state economy – Texas – produced $1.4 trillion of economic output in 2012, placing it just slightly behind the world’s 13th largest country by GDP – Australia – with $1.56 trillion of economic output.

3. Even with all of its oil wealth, Saudi Arabia’s GDP in 2012 at $711 billion was less than GDP in Florida ($777 billion) and just slightly more than the GDP in Illinois ($695 billion).

4. New York’s GDP in 2012 of $1.205 trillion was slightly more than Mexico’s GDP of $1.18 trillion, even though Mexico’s population of 120.8 million people is 6.2 times larger than the number of people living in New York (19.6 million). Another example of the world-class productivity of the American workforce.

5. Washington state produces almost as much economic output ($375.7 billion) as Venezuela ($382 billion), even though Venezuela’s population (30 million) is more than four times larger than Washington’s (6.9 million).

6. Likewise, capitalist West Virginia produces about the same GDP as communist Cuba, even though Cuba’s population is more than six times larger than West Virginia’s.

MP: Overall, the US produced 22.3% of world GDP in 2012, with only 4.4% of the world’s population. Three of America’s states (California, Texas and New York) – as separate countries – would rank in the world’s top 15 largest economies. And one of those states – California – produced more than $2 trillion in economic output in 2012 – and the other two (Texas and New York) produced more than $1 trillion of GDP in 2012. The map and these statistics help remind us of the enormity of the economic powerhouse we live in. So let’s not lose sight of how ridiculously large and powerful the US economy is, and how much wealth and prosperity is being created all the time in the world’s largest economic engine.

http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/02/ame...e-16t-economy/

[PRB]

Helps with the perspective

[ZonieDiver]

I used to demonstrate that to my Econ classes. I also showed that if you took out CA, TX, NY, and FL and others from the US GDP, we were still the largest economy in the world.

The other thing that shocked my classes (85%+ of whom were of Americans of Mexican ethnicity) was the size of Mexico's economy and it's position in the world. They all thought it was waaaaay down the list, instead of in the top 15.

[Roguish Lawyer]

Give the Dems some more time and we won't be making these comparisons any more.

[Sdiver]

Oh how I wish they would have put Kenya over Hawaii instead of Montana.

[mark46th]

And California, like Italy, is broke...

[Streck-Fu]

Kind of interesting.

I be interesting in how it works out if government spending were removed from the GDP.

[Trapper John]

A more an important metric would be the debt to income ratios. US debt/income = 1.1 not very healthy IMO ideally should be < 0.5. On that basis, if each state were renamed for a comparable nation it would be a different picture altogether.

The encouraging thing is the productivity per unit of population comparison. This tells me that IF we could uncouple the massive debt that is holding back investment, our economy and job growth would come roaring back. I suspect that we would even need to import workers to fill the jobs.

[Trapper John]

Originally Posted by Brush Okie

The sad part is the Kalifornia is the nations top agricultural state meaning the whole country hurts when they screw that state up by hurting the farmers. Lets face it we need to take that state back from the liberals. Many areas of that state are very consivertive yet the dems have twisted the voting boundaries so that a conservative person can not win a major populated area.

Repealing the 17th A would help a lot in that regard.

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Brush Okie

The sad part is the Kalifornia is the nations top agricultural state meaning the whole country hurts when they screw that state up by hurting the farmers. Lets face it we need to take that state back from the liberals. Many areas of that state are very consivertive yet the dems have twisted the voting boundaries so that a conservative person can not win a major populated area.

Well, that and the rise of the enviro-Nazis.

We always seem to be going from one extreme to another.

Lately, they seem to have been to the left, for some reason.

TR

[Surf n Turf]

Originally Posted by The Reaper

Well, that and the rise of the enviro-Nazis.

We always seem to be going from one extreme to another.

Lately, they seem to have been to the left, for some reason.

TR

From bondage to Spiritual Faith
From Spiritual Faith to Great Courage
From Courage to Liberty
From Liberty to Abundance
From Abundance to Selfishness
From Selfishness to Complacency
From Complacency to Apathy
From Apathy to Dependence
From Dependence back to Bondage.

TR,

Do you think that the next extreme (Bondage?) will come from the right ?

SnT

[The Reaper]

Originally Posted by Surf n Turf

From bondage to Spiritual Faith
From Spiritual Faith to Great Courage
From Courage to Liberty
From Liberty to Abundance
From Abundance to Selfishness
From Selfishness to Complacency
From Complacency to Apathy
From Apathy to Dependence
From Dependence back to Bondage.

TR,

Do you think that the next extreme (Bondage?) will come from the right ?

SnT

I think that the threat is possible from either direction.

A quick look at the Dims and their leadership would lead me to believe that their ideology would like to see certain classes of Americans in bondage.

The left (and the Dims) created the system of poverty and desperation that has forged the chains for a culture with almost half dependent on the work of others. That was FDR, LBJ, etc.

How would the right subjugate people and put them into bondage today?

Most of the dependent people reliably vote for the party that enslaves them.

Why is that?

TR

[Max_Tab]

Originally Posted by Brush Okie

The sad part is the Kalifornia is the nations top agricultural state meaning the whole country hurts when they screw that state up by hurting the farmers. Lets face it we need to take that state back from the liberals. Many areas of that state are very consivertive yet the dems have twisted the voting boundaries so that a conservative person can not win a major populated area.

They need to split the state into North and South.

[mark46th]

California now has a Democratic legislature who wants everyone to have the same as everyone else. Even Jerry Brown, Govenor Moonbeam, is having trouble keeping the legislature from spending the modest surplus from last year.

[Sdiver]

Originally Posted by Max_Tab

They need to split the state into North and South.

I think they already did, or came close to actually doing it.

I remember seeing a show on the History Channel or Discovery Channel or one of those channels, that there was indeed a movement to separate the northern part of Kaili from the south. They were ready to make their own state .... the State of Jefferson.

If I remember correctly, they were ready to vote or break away from the state and become their own state. The date this was going to happen was Monday December 8th, 1941. But the attack on Pearl Harbor occurred the day before which stopped the movement/action in it's tacks.

ETA .... Here ya go. I know it's Wikipedia , but it at least gives a basis of what I was referring to above.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffers...cific_state%29