
California Now World's 5th Largest Economy, Surpassing UK - Synroc
https://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2018/05/04/us/ap-us-california-economy.html
======
ProfessorLayton
The question is what is CA going to do when its municipalities indirectly cap
GDP via their terrible housing policies. The entire state is under a slow boil
by NIMBYism that will eventually choke its otherwise impressive economy.

~~~
nradov
I'm not a NIMBY myself, but most of them would claim that preserving quality
of life for existing residents is more important than maximizing GDP or making
space for newcomers. If you want to improve housing policies then you'll have
to find a way to counteract those objections.

~~~
rak00n
How about existing residents who rent in CA cities? Your argument doesn't
stand.

~~~
nradov
Very few of the hard-core NIMBYs are renters. My argument still stands.

~~~
twiceaday
Homeowners and renters are affected by these policies differently, often in
opposite ways. That's the point. Obviously these NIMBYs are homeowners because
their position grossly favors existing homeowners. Mortgage payments are not
affected by a constant influx of new people but rent prices are. Stalling is a
win for one side only. Anybody can wish for "preserving quality of life." But
while they are wishing homeowners are reaping all of the benefits and renters
are getting screwed.

~~~
true_religion
I would be very surprised if there were more homeowners than renters in
cities, and if there were---then what we have is democracy at work.

Consequently, I believe that many renters simply aren't participating in the
political process or are strangely voting against their obvious interests.

The YIMBY platform _will_ work because the majority of people will benefit
from it, but need organization to actually get to the polling booths and
participate in lobbying.

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dmode
This is truly incredible and speaks to the amazing spirit of people and
government of California. These numbers become even more incredible when you
consider that UK has 66 million people. And CA is also a net donor state when
it comes to Federal taxes. If you add that spending back, the economy would be
even bigger. Most articles here and in the internet speak to a dislike of
California. But for me, everyday I feel lucky to live here.

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caio1982
How's wealth and welfare distribution around the state though?

~~~
O1111OOO
This was the same question I had. According to the recent Federal Data,
California had a GDP $2.747 trillion[0]. In 2016, Los Angeles' GDP was a
little over 1 trillion by itself[1].

A quick search revealed this too[2] (because I was curious about the impact
"Hollywood" has on the economy):

> According to a recent report by the Los Angeles County Economic Development
> Corporation, motion picture and sound recording jobs accounted for just 2.4
> percent of the private sector labor force in the city of L.A. in 2015.

(Note: I couldn't quickly find total Hollywood revenue, plus there's the
"creative accounting" issue[3] too)

It's certainly a _rabbit hole_ of data analysis.

[0] [http://www.businessinsider.com/california-economy-
ranks-5th-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/california-economy-ranks-5th-in-
the-world-beating-the-uk-2018-5)

[1] [https://www.statista.com/statistics/183822/gdp-of-the-los-
an...](https://www.statista.com/statistics/183822/gdp-of-the-los-angeles-
metro-area/)

[2] [http://www.laweekly.com/news/how-much-does-hollywood-
contrib...](http://www.laweekly.com/news/how-much-does-hollywood-contribute-
to-las-economy-not-as-much-as-you-think-8798404)

[3]
[https://duckduckgo.com/?q=hollywood+creative+accounting&ia=w...](https://duckduckgo.com/?q=hollywood+creative+accounting&ia=web)

------
beefman
No reason to use a paywalled version of this AP story

[https://www.apnews.com/dfe5adff6d3640249e63f5637dfeb995](https://www.apnews.com/dfe5adff6d3640249e63f5637dfeb995)

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lightedman
You mean once again. It has been #5 before.

------
Circumnavigate
5th largest in the world and yet where is all of the money going? California
is in a huge deficit.

~~~
ddoolin
California has a high amount of debt, particularly per household, when
compared to (some) other U.S. states. However, the last few years under
governor Brown have led to a budget surplus for those years, which is commonly
attributed to the tax hikes of Proposition 30, among better spending
decisions.

We're looking at a pretty substantial surplus for this year's budget, which
will be finalized in June, and lawmakers have different ideas about what to do
with it. Governor Brown wants to put it in the rainy day fund, conservatives
largely want to enact tax relief for some Californians, and the state's
liberal politicians largely want to spend it on other things.

Personally, I'd like if California used at least the bulk of it to pay down
some of our unfunded liabilities with regards to pension programs, of which we
still have about $275 billion (of over $400 billion in total debt). There are
plans to take care of these over the next 3 decades, but settling it a bit
earlier never hurt.

~~~
DrScump

      the last few years under governor Brown have led to a budget surplus for those years
    

no, it wasn't a surplus. 2017 showed a $1.6 Billion _deficit_ [0].

[0] [http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-jerry-brown-
budge...](http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-sac-jerry-brown-budget-trump-
risks-20170110-story.html)

~~~
ddoolin
You're right -- due to some (must-have-been-pretty-awful) miscalculations
about the cost of a certain program that pushed it into deficit territory. My
mistake! I was also considering 2017 as this year since a budget spans two
years.

For completeness, CA roughly carried a deficit from '02-'03 to '12-'13, and
then roughly a surplus from '13-'14 onwards, except for 2017.

