
A Third of America’s Economy Is Concentrated in Thirty-one Counties - pseudolus
https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2019-us-gdp-concentration-counties/
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brm
And 2/3rds of the US population lives in 3.5% of the land area, what do you
expect?

The correction here is not to spread things out again but to adapt to the
concentration.

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simmons
Yes, a lot of these sorts of measurements tend to just be population heat
maps. Going down the list of most populous metro areas in the U.S. [1] or the
most populous counties [2], all the top places are represented in the list.
Although there are a few outliers at the edges (e.g. Charlotte, NC seems to
punch above its weight).

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_statistic...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_metropolitan_statistical_areas#United_States)
[2]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_populous_coun...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_populous_counties_in_the_United_States)

~~~
ghaff
Lowe's, Duke Energy... I'd probably have expected Wake County in that general
area but that's something of a bias because of tech--and because it's the
capital.

As the article notes, this isn't purely explained by population--but a lot of
it is. It's maybe also worth noting that, for a lot of those metros, a decent
chunk of the working population lives far enough outside of the metro area to
be in another county. (Some businesses are too of course but probably less
than the number of people.)

~~~
non-entity
Charlotte is also like the 2nd or 3rd largest banking center in the country

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Balgair
Radiolab has a great episode on Cities from a while back.
[https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/radiolab/cities](https://www.kcrw.com/culture/shows/radiolab/cities)

Among other things, you can predict the average walking speed in a city with
some accuracy.

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lxmorj
Would assume the NX gets credited to the production county not the port
county...

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lonelappde
The core flaw is that GDP is a national calculation and so cannot be used for
county analysis. You'd need to compute Gross County Product separately for
every county, to avoid cancelling out one county's exports against a different
county's imports.

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Merrill
GDP = C + G + I + NX

Since cities are centers of consumption (C) and government spending (G), and
those that are ports do exporting (NX=net exports), the concentration seems
reasonable.

~~~
pc86
Government spending doesn't add to GDP because government doesn't create the
money it spends. All the money government has to spend and create value is a
byproduct of what actually goes into GDP.

~~~
rayiner
You’re not quite correct but not entirely wrong either. You can measure GDP by
measuring production, or measuring consumption plus investment and exports.
(Everything that is produced must be either consumed, saved, or exported.)
Government spending is one type of consumption that’s included in the GDP
calculation.

Obviously, however, a dollar of government spending will typically replace a
dollar that would otherwise be consumed or invested.

~~~
pjc50
> Obviously, however, a dollar of government spending will typically replace a
> dollar that would otherwise be consumed or invested.

It may be "obvious", but is it true? There's quite a bit of economics
suggesting that it isn't, ranging from multiplier effects and orthodox
Keynsianism ("reserve army of the unemployed") to more surprising claims from
the MMT wing.

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Dirlewanger
Guess it's a slow news week. A large chunk of the country's GDP is
concentrated where a large chunk of the population lives?? Riveting reporting,
Bloomberg.

~~~
addicted44
Except if you look at the actual political discussion, that's not the idea you
will get.

The vast majority of American political discussion is centered around the idea
that "real Americans" are those living in rural areas, when in fact a few
years ago the majority of Americans live in urban zones.

But further, there is a pervasive belief that it's those rural areas that are
keeping the US economy going, and pretty much all political economic
discussion is based on the idea of catering to rural areas economic needs,
when in reality, as this article shows, the overwhelming majority of the US's
economic output comes from urban areas.

~~~
rayiner
“Urban” is a broadly defined term. According to the Census Bureau, Sibley Iowa
(pop. 2,800) is an “urban” area. So are the suburbs and exurbs of Des Moines.
Most Americans don’t live in what you’d usually think of as an “urban area.”

I also disagree with your characterization of our political narratives. There
is probably a disproportionate focus on rural areas. (Although, that accounts
for 20% of the population, which is pretty remarkable when you consider that
the small towns in rural areas are classified as “urban.”) There is also a big
media focus on rust belt cities and the like. (The famous “Cuyahoga County”).
That encompasses secondary cities like Cleveland and their suburbs. That _is_
where most Americans live.

~~~
ghaff
As I've said before, the census definition of "urban" makes sense in the
context of the vast areas of the US that are truly middle of nowhere rural.
But most places that are classified as urban have very little in common with a
city core where you can walk out of your apartment to the corner store. I live
in an urban area between an apple orchard and a Christmas tree farm.

