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Fifth largest, sixth largest, eighth largest -- it kind of does not matter. A single US state has a larger economy than the vast majority of nations. It's prett

Fifth largest, sixth largest, eighth largest -- it kind of does not matter. A single US state has a larger economy than the vast majority of nations. It's pretty impressive, but it isn't really news. This has been true for a long time. I have seen it said that "California is the American dream squared" or something like that.

frozenport 10y ago
It's code for California is doing well, there was a time under Gray Davis when it was falling down the rankings.
- DorintheFlora 10y ago
  Still, it seems thin for HN. Even given that many people here live in California and HN is headquartered in California, it doesn't seem like something interesting, discussion worthy and meriting hitting the front page. I mean, I like this little tidbit about California and have for years. But this isn't particularly substantive.
  - frozenport 10y ago
    Yeah, its definitely Buzzfeed click bait, but there are other interesting indicators of California's growth. For example, California surpassed a number of states in average GDP per capita in the last few years. For example, in 2009 Illinois was ahead of California.
    - DorintheFlora 10y ago
      And, yet, here we are, discussing the clickbait -- me included. (I mean, instead of something meatier.)
deleted 10y ago
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monk_e_boy 10y ago
Populations: France 66M California 38M
chimeracoder 10y ago
> A single US state has a larger economy than the vast majority of nations. It's pretty impressive, but it isn't really news. California's economy is impressive, but this comparison doesn't really show that. California has a larger population than all but ~15% of the world's nations[0]. Having a GDP larger than 50% of them isn't surprising. At least 20 US states have a GDP per-capita greater than almost any other country in the world, except for a couple of incredibly tiny countries like Liechtenstein[1], and some countries with massive oil reserves (Qatar, Norway, UAE, etc.). On a per-capita basis, California ranks higher than Switzerland, only tenth in the US. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_%28United_Nations%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_populatio... [1] 'per capita' is much less meaningful as a metric when there are several orders of magnitude difference between the denominators, and Liechtenstein has the population of what would be considered a medium-sized town in other countries.
- jessriedel 10y ago
  > Having a GDP larger than 50% of them isn't surprising. Huh? Being the 6th largest economy means it has a GDP larger than 97% of them. Or larger than 75% of the 15% with population larger than it.

frozenport 10y ago

It's code for California is doing well, there was a time under Gray Davis when it was falling down the rankings.

DorintheFlora 10y ago
Still, it seems thin for HN. Even given that many people here live in California and HN is headquartered in California, it doesn't seem like something interesting, discussion worthy and meriting hitting the front page. I mean, I like this little tidbit about California and have for years. But this isn't particularly substantive.
- frozenport 10y ago
  Yeah, its definitely Buzzfeed click bait, but there are other interesting indicators of California's growth. For example, California surpassed a number of states in average GDP per capita in the last few years. For example, in 2009 Illinois was ahead of California.
  - DorintheFlora 10y ago
    And, yet, here we are, discussing the clickbait -- me included. (I mean, instead of something meatier.)

deleted 10y ago

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monk_e_boy 10y ago

Populations: France 66M California 38M

chimeracoder 10y ago

> A single US state has a larger economy than the vast majority of nations. It's pretty impressive, but it isn't really news. California's economy is impressive, but this comparison doesn't really show that. California has a larger population than all but ~15% of the world's nations[0]. Having a GDP larger than 50% of them isn't surprising. At least 20 US states have a GDP per-capita greater than almost any other country in the world, except for a couple of incredibly tiny countries like Liechtenstein[1], and some countries with massive oil reserves (Qatar, Norway, UAE, etc.). On a per-capita basis, California ranks higher than Switzerland, only tenth in the US. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population_%28United_Nations%29 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_populatio... [1] 'per capita' is much less meaningful as a metric when there are several orders of magnitude difference between the denominators, and Liechtenstein has the population of what would be considered a medium-sized town in other countries.

jessriedel 10y ago
> Having a GDP larger than 50% of them isn't surprising. Huh? Being the 6th largest economy means it has a GDP larger than 97% of them. Or larger than 75% of the 15% with population larger than it.