<story><title>Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs</title><url>http://thesoundingline.com/map-of-the-day-us-states-renamed-for-countries-with-similar-gdps/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>danielvf</author><text>From the original article and chart (not the current linked site):&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &amp;quot;California has a labor force of 19.3 million compared to the labor force in the UK of 33.8 million (World Bank data here). Amazingly, it required a labor force 75% larger (and 14.5 million more people) in the UK to produce the same economic output last year as California! ... Further, California as a separate country would have been the 5th largest economy in the world last year, ahead of the UK ($2.62 trillion), India ($2.61 trillion) and France ($2.58 trillion).&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>skratlo</author><text>&amp;gt; Amazingly, it required a labor force 75% larger (and 14.5 million more people) in the UK to produce the same economic output&lt;p&gt;Look at it the other way, the UK can house &amp;amp; feed more people with the same economic output, therefore being more efficient at those tasks.</text></comment>
<story><title>Map: US States Renamed as Countries with Similar GDPs</title><url>http://thesoundingline.com/map-of-the-day-us-states-renamed-for-countries-with-similar-gdps/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>danielvf</author><text>From the original article and chart (not the current linked site):&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &amp;quot;California has a labor force of 19.3 million compared to the labor force in the UK of 33.8 million (World Bank data here). Amazingly, it required a labor force 75% larger (and 14.5 million more people) in the UK to produce the same economic output last year as California! ... Further, California as a separate country would have been the 5th largest economy in the world last year, ahead of the UK ($2.62 trillion), India ($2.61 trillion) and France ($2.58 trillion).&amp;quot;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mhandley</author><text>That shows the power of immigration.  I&amp;#x27;m not even talking about immigration from outside the US, though that&amp;#x27;s significant too.  California has such high GDP per capita because it draws well educated people from the rest of the US.  If it was an independent country, it couldn&amp;#x27;t do that so easily.</text></comment>