Comments on: Economic States

Economic States

wendell — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 11:59:00 -0800

California = France? Norwegian bløgger Carl Størmer (via THE BIG PICTURE) made a U.S. map substituting the state names for other countries of equivalent GDP. Some of the substitutions are funny: Illinois = Mexico? Texas = Canada? New Jersey = Russia? Hawaii = Nigeria? Oregon = Israel? But your economic mileage will vary: apparently California no longer has the "sixth-largest economy in the world", no matter what The Governator says. Wikipedia chimes in, while some Californians don't want to be bothered with facts.

By: ZenMasterThis

ZenMasterThis — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:02:20 -0800

Do GDP figures include black market goods (California, Hawaii, Thailand...)?

By: Turtles all the way down

Turtles all the way down — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:09:14 -0800

For some reason that label of Canada on the state of Texas looks oddly appealing. Y'all are now on notice: Don't mess with us!

By: rachelpapers

rachelpapers — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:09:57 -0800

Cool, but I think this would have been more interesting if country names had been substituted that matched the states' primary sources of revenue.

By: StrasbourgSecaucus

StrasbourgSecaucus — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:42:24 -0800

that last link is the dumbest thing i've read today that wasn't a MeTa thread.

By: linux

linux — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:43:09 -0800

Sixth, eighth... like it was a big difference. California has a GDP more than twice that of the nations in the Top 11-20. It's rather obscene as it is, sixth or eighth.

By: CitrusFreak12

CitrusFreak12 — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:45:45 -0800

Hahaha friggen Vietnam. Aw. I think when the US loses its position as a superpower, this is how we should divy the country up.

By: TwoWordReview

TwoWordReview — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:48:16 -0800

I wanted to speak on behalf of my country and say in my (our) best Ralph Wiggum voice "I'm Idaho!" Instead I (we) get Nevada. Could be worse I guess!

By: drezdn

drezdn — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 12:55:04 -0800

Now everyone will know about my state's secret trade in fine diamonds.

By: thekilgore

thekilgore — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:05:25 -0800

GOOOOOOO MEXICO!!!

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:05:48 -0800

Hong Kong, eh? Not too shabby.

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:08:26 -0800

Oregon = Israel? Oy

By: bonecrusher

bonecrusher — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:09:56 -0800

Scandinavian social democracy here I come!!! As long as we don't have to start eating lutefisk, too. Oh, wait...

By: jonmc

jonmc — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:11:14 -0800

New York=Brazil? Oh, well. *puts on banana hammock, eats paella*

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:15:21 -0800

I'm dumbfounded trying to figure how Tennessee has a GDP equivalent to Saudi Arabia. As is, I'm happy being Brazil.

By: SteveInMaine

SteveInMaine — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:32:11 -0800

SteveInMorocco has a nice ring to it. Too bad they spelled Morocco incorrectly on the map.

By: milkrate

milkrate — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:32:18 -0800

Minnesota/Norway is cute.

By: COBRA!

COBRA! — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:49:22 -0800

Minnesota/Norway is cute. posted by milkrate at 3:32 PM CST on January 16 [+] Yeah, I liked that, and Nebraska/Czech Republic made me think of My Antonia. Actually, I'm surprised that Minnesota lines up with Norway, given our lack of oilfields.

By: YoBananaBoy

YoBananaBoy — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:50:50 -0800

I wonder who Bush would invade first?

By: zennie

zennie — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:56:27 -0800

Hong Kong, eh? Not too shabby. Exactly my reaction. This post has provided some pretty interesting what-ifs for me. Thanks! I think I'll have Chinese for supper...

By: synaesthetichaze

synaesthetichaze — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 13:58:11 -0800

I always wanted to visit Amsterdam.

By: Paragon

Paragon — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:08:52 -0800

Oh great, give us all the politicians. Gee, thanks.

By: nola

nola — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:24:53 -0800

I'm dumbfounded trying to figure how Tennessee has a GDP equivalent to Saudi Arabia. As is, I'm happy being Brazil. posted by Navelgazer um, yeah dude. i live here and i have no idea what thats all about, but what the hell do i know. i thought TN's GDP was tied to jack daniels, and weed.

By: brundlefly

brundlefly — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:51:06 -0800

Indonesia?! *invades East Timor*

By: SBMike

SBMike — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 14:54:35 -0800

Wyoming = Uzbekistan? Assholes!!!

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:07:26 -0800

Thanks for this fun and interesting post wendell. Amazing map. And surprising too. Yeah, Saudi Arabia as Tennessee?! (Embarassing confession: I didn't know the exact locations of all the states in USA and recently started playing that simple online game, placing states in their correct USA places to learn. It helped me recognise that Czech Republic was where Nebraska is, Chile is Mississippi and Denmark = Indiana etc.)

By: weston

weston — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 15:38:33 -0800

i thought TN's GDP was tied to jack daniels, and weed. There's lots of farming, textile and livestock, IIRC. Maybe Mining too? Country Music? In any case, it wouldn't surprise me to see that a diverse and industrial-to-post-industrial economy would outperform a barely industrial economy largely based on the sale of a single natural resource. I'm also not surprised Utah's rough analog might be Peru (although with 1/10th the population, our per-capita GDP would obviously be much higher).

By: KirkJobSluder

KirkJobSluder — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 16:10:09 -0800

TN looks to be mostly manufacturing, with a fairly large chunk of the transportation equipment sector. (7th in the nation for that category.) Mostly concentrated in urban areas.

By: divabat

divabat — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 17:14:56 -0800

What states have been substituted with Bangladesh and Malaysia?

By: KirkJobSluder

KirkJobSluder — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 17:23:24 -0800

And actually, most of the states east of the Mississippi get the majority of their GSP from industry of various sorts. Although you drive through miles and miles of agriculture, most of the jobs and income are going to be in and around the factory cities or towns.

By: Turtle

Turtle — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 17:26:28 -0800

Nigeria=Hawaii is the most shocking to me. Nigeria is sub-Saharan Africa's biggest economy after South Africa, but 40 US states have bigger economies than Hawaii.

By: Turtle

Turtle — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 17:43:36 -0800

Actually the figures are quite a bit off for some countries. And somewhat meaningless because not PPP. Also Carl Størmer didn't make the map.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:41:16 -0800

oddly fascinating.

By: banishedimmortal

banishedimmortal — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 20:33:57 -0800

Also appropriate: Missouri = (you forgot) Poland Montana = Tunisia

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 20:51:27 -0800

Turtle, Thanks for the info about the origin of the map. pointing out the additional info and for prompting me to learn what PPP is in relation to the GDP.

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 23:12:26 -0800

According to this article, California's Cannabis sativa crop is worth $13.8 billion, raising the published GDP by 9%. That's an increase of 2 spots on the top 10 list. Also, when your front page post's lead link is a graphic, you might consider attribution to the creator of that graphic, instead of to the blogger who borrowed it (with proper attribution) for his blog.

By: wendell

wendell — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:17:22 -0800

Yes, ikkyu2, my bad. My baddy bad. I'd hate hate hate if it happened to me. I was researching only the California angle when I discovered the map; it was so... so shiny...

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:24:33 -0800

No worries; appeared to me you'd probably missed the attribution. It was in like 4 point font on an all-Norwegian web page. I can't find where the York Group has it on their site, either.

By: Turtle

Turtle — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 04:43:25 -0800

ikkyu2, were you high when you wrote that? California's GDP is $1,500 billion. Pot adds less than 1% to its output. The best way for California to pass Italy again is for the euro to drop against the dollar.

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 13:07:47 -0800

No, not high, just misplaced a decimal point. Should've been 0.9%.