
California surpasses France as world's 6th largest economy - codegeek
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/06/17/california-surpasses-france-as-worlds-6th-largest-economy.html
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HoppedUpMenace
California was the 5th largest economy at one point in the 90's and early
2000's.

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labrador
Better wines too [1] but that doesn't concern me. I was born in California and
have decided that if Republicans end up destroying the Federal government,
then I'd be fine with California, Oregon and Washington forming a new country
called Cascadia. By the way, Cascadia would have the 2 or 3rd most powerful
military in the world.

[1]
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5013910.stm](http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5013910.stm)

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Thaxll
The article is rather light on proofs and numbers.

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amelius
Where is Europe's Silicon Valley?

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rm_-rf_slash
There is only one Silicon Valley: the one in California. Nowhere else in the
United States - or the world - has quite the unique mix of red-blooded
capitalism, concentrated wealth, and a culture of innovation.

"Silicon Alley" (New York), "silicon roundabout" (London), and so on are
simply natural, technologically focused extensions of the existing economies
in those areas.

If you want to create a Silicon Valley in Europe, it will take decades until
it can compare to Northern California.

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ThePadawan
> Nowhere else in the United States - or the world - has quite the unique mix
> of red-blooded capitalism, concentrated wealth, and a culture of innovation.

Now that you put it into a sentence, I find it less surprising that
Switzerland is starting to brand itself as "Europe's Silicon Valley".

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jacquesm
Until the 2014 referendum that might have happened but as it is it's off the
table.

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bluthru
Are the middle eastern migrants an economic liability for France? Wasn't
Europe sold on the notion that a population influx would help the economy?

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collyw
Many people aren't sold on that notion. I can't see how bring people from
vastly different cultural backgrounds, many of whom won't speak the language
are going to benefit the economy.

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gooserock
Are you familiar with a country called the United States? I hear they've done
pretty well with immigrants from vastly different cultural backgrounds, many
of whom don't speak the language.

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pmezard
Also heard about US/Mexico borders, green card quotas, h-b1, etc. You practice
immigration quotas (which may be smart), we do not. I would be interested to
see the outcome of a massive muslim immigration in the US.

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vermontdevil
Look up Dearborn Michigan

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pmezard
"As of the 2010 census the population of Dearborn was 98,153. The racial and
ethnic composition was 89.1% Whites, 4.0% black or African-American, 0.2%
Native American, 1.7% Asian, 0.2% Non-Hispanics of some other race, 4.0%
reporting two or more races and 3.4% Hispanic or Latino.[14] 41.7% were of
Arab ancestry (categorized as "White" in Census collection data)."

Sorry, 50k is not massive, let's talk about a couple of millions.

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ameen
The Muslim influx was a result of colonial France. Britain has a sizeable
Muslim population which is doing relatively well. The problem was discrimation
and non-integration. Muslims (of North Africa) are unfortunately INA similar
position as blacks in the USA.

The only common factor being their economic status.

But the Arab French have integrated culturally and are highly successful
artists, athletes, businessmen, etc. Its only a matter of time before they
deliver on the promise of immigration.

P.S. I'm a Muslim of South Asian origin born in Saudi Arabia.

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tehabe
Actually it shows how unequal the US states are in terms of economic power,
the average US state is on number 31, California on number 5.

Which begs the question, which is the worst doing state in the Union?

(Answer: it is Vermont)

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B1FF_PSUVM
> Which begs the question

No, it doesn't - [http://begthequestion.info](http://begthequestion.info)

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haffla
Being a non native in English I'm really grateful for this comment. I've never
really understood this BTQ expression.

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whamlastxmas
99% of English speakers do not understand it either, and misuse it constantly.

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bane
Maybe they use their own language perfectly fine and it's the meaning of the
idiom that has changed?

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whamlastxmas
Language can both be wrong to its original meaning and also accepted.

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ndj7
Imagine the response were some terrible person to edit
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nomi...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_\(nominal\))

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DorintheFlora
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.

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

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DorintheFlora
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.

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frozenport
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.

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DorintheFlora
And, yet, here we are, discussing the clickbait -- me included.

(I mean, instead of something meatier.)

