Comparing US State GDPs with countries.

[SamuelRSmith]

Kasz216 said:

highwaystar101 said:

I find it depressing that California's GDP is near to the size of Britain's, this wasn't the case just a couple of years ago I swear.

For the record

British GDP

2007 2,799,040,362,405 (High Point)

2009 2,174,529,808,278

 

Californa

2006(couldn't find 2007) 1,812,968   (for refrence UK was about 2,400,000,000)

2009 1,891,260,000,000

 

So... seems more like UK drop combined with just California slow crawl.

Of course with 1.5 billions in unpaid pensions... and all sorts of other debt problems... I wouldn't be surprised if California started to drop rapidly.  I hear senators are working on State bankruptcy laws just for the occasion.  (Well and a few other states.)

What we really have to consider here, though, is currency fluctuations. Back in  07 the pound bought over two dollars at a few points... artificially inflating what British GDP when valued in dollars.

Just one of the many reasons why using GDP to measure and compare standards of living is flawed.