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by samr71 1940 days ago
What does a large GDP prove? It is the largest state after all. A smaller state, that doesn't happen to contain some of the country's best real estate and most productive industries (say, New Hampshire) could be better run, but of course with a smaller GDP to show for it.

California's large GDP could then be in spite of its management, not a product of it.
2 comments
gamblor956 1939 days ago
Tech isn't CA's only industry...

CA's large GDP is the result of the diversification of its industries. CA has the largest agricultural industry in the U.S., the largest manufacturing industry (yes, people still make things in the U.S.), the largest entertainment industry, and the largest tourism industry.

And that doesn't even take into account the purely local-market GDP in the Bay Area, LA/OC metro area, or San Diego, each of which boasts a local GDP larger than the total GDPs of most of the Midwestern states, or, for that matter, industries where CA has a large market but isn't a national leader, such as finance, biotech, or resource extraction.

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redisman 1939 days ago
> the largest...

Shouldn’t you at least divide these by population to get any meaningful metrics? Otherwise you’re just saying it’s the largest state in different ways

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gamblor956 1939 days ago
If you divide by per capita, CA is still the largest in these industries per capita, and even where it isn't, it is still close to being the largest.

Everyone thinks CA is just tech and entertainment, but CA is a very diversified state, which is why it has been able to weather COVID19 so well despite essentially no tourism in 2020.

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tadfisher 1940 days ago
California is ahead of India, a country of well over 1 billion people, which pretty much refutes the size argument.
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buzzerbetrayed 1940 days ago
No, it really doesn't refute that argument at all. Nobody is arguing that size is the only factor. India being ahead of California would refute _that_ argument, but no argument that anybody here has actually made.
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samr71 1940 days ago
Not sure how that refutes the size argument. The variation between California and New Hampshire is much smaller than the variation between California and India. It's not really apples to apples in the latter case.
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