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California Becomes the World's Fourth-Largest Economy, Overtaking Japan (cnn.com) 116

Posted by EditorDavid from the gold-rush dept.
"Only the United States, China and Germany have larger economies than California," reports CNN.

In fact, they add that California "outpaced all three countries with growth of 6% last year," according to the California governor's office (which cites new data from the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis): In 2024, California's growth rate of 6% outpaced the top three economies: U.S. (5.3%), China (2.6%) and Germany (2.9%)...

With an increasing state population and recent record-high tourism spending, California is the nation's top state for new business starts, access to venture capital funding, and manufacturing, high-tech, and agriculture. The state drives national economic growth and also sends over $83 billion more to the federal government than it receives in federal funding. California is the leading agricultural producer in the country and is also the center for manufacturing output in the United States, with over 36,000 manufacturing firms employing over 1.1 million Californians.
The data shows that last year California accounted for 14% of America's GDP, CNN points out, "driven by Silicon Valley and its real estate and finance sectors."

California Becomes the World's Fourth-Largest Economy, Overtaking Japan More | Reply

California Becomes the World's Fourth-Largest Economy, Overtaking Japan

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  • That's going to be a hell of a loss when the big one hits and California becomes the next great barrier reef. One the plus side more room for whales.

    • Re: Ouch (Score:5, Interesting)

      by beelsebob ( 529313 ) on Saturday April 26, 2025 @02:49PM (#65333075)

      I mean, first of all, âoethe big oneâ isnâ(TM)t expected in California, itâ(TM)s expected in Washington/Oregon, when the cascadia subduction zone next slips.

      Secondly, assuming youâ(TM)re thinking of next time the San Andreas fault slips, thatâ(TM)s certainly wonâ(TM)t result in any small part of the state becoming a reef, let alone the whole state. The San Andreas fault is a strike/slip fault, it moves sideways, not up and down.

    • That's going to be a hell of a loss when the big one hits and California becomes the next great barrier reef. One the plus side more room for whales.

      Sorry, the plate tectonics are working in the other direction. The "Pacific" plate is crashing into the "North American" plate. California is going to get more hills and higher mountains.

    • Won't be such a big loss. China, Germany, and the US as a whole actually produce stuff, whereas the data being used to support California's claim is mostly from increasing shareholder value. Would anything of value be lost if Fecebook, Twatter, and all the rest suddenly went away?

  • Submissions (Score:1, Redundant)

    by Local ID10T ( 790134 )

    I submitted this Thursday, ya submission thief! https://slashdot.org/submissio... [slashdot.org]

    The state’s nominal GDP reached $4.1tn, according to data from the International Monetary Fund and the US Bureau of Economic Analysis, edging out Japan’s $4.02tn nominal GDP. California now ranks behind the US at $29.18tn, China at $18.74tn and Germany at $4.65tn.

    Along with the tech and entertainment industry capitals, the state, which has a population of nearly 40 million people, is the center for US manufacturing

  • Talk about hurrying the lead. The US economy grew faster than China’s last year?!?! If true, that hasn’t happened in decades. And certainly not since the last millennium.
    • Burying.

    • Lede. Burying the lede.
      https://www.merriam-webster.co... [merriam-webster.com]

      • Lede. Burying the lede.
        https://www.merriam-webster.co... [merriam-webster.com]

        If people have been burying the lede for centuries, why don't we find ledes when we go digging in the garden?

        • If people have been burying the lede for centuries, why don't we find ledes when we go digging in the garden?

          Feral pigs. These feral pigs will dig up almost anything not buried deep enough and could potentially be a source of food. I don't suggest trying it but I recall a buried lede tastes a bit sweet, kind of like a bit of fruit. Lede can be poisonous so don't go tasting them, and once buried they could pick up diseases in the dirt. I know people eat potatoes, and they are dug up from the dirt, but we clean and cook them beforehand. Could someone cook a buried lede to make them safe to eat? Maybe, but ther

          • These feral pigs will dig up almost anything not buried deep enough and could potentially be a source of food.

            Mmmm, bacon!!!

        • They're all hidden in Leeds.

    • Their birth rate is crashing and it was mostly absorbing the shitloads of poor rural Chinese into cities that made their economy explode. That plus basically taking over all manufacturing in the world.

      They are now the target of the next Cold war (got to keep that military industrial complex going since Russia is pretty obviously not a threat, given that they can't even take a single small country). That means a lot of the manufacturing is going to be gradually shifted over to India.

      That's probably a

      • Pakistan has twice now looked the other way at Major terrorist attacks happening in India rather than warn the government and twice now nothing has come of it because they're not allowed to go to war when it would screw with capitalism.

        Well, there's also the idea of mutual assured destruction. Each country has around 170 nuclear warheads, along with missiles and bombers. That's enough to destroy each other's major cities. Also, war on one's own soil tends to sink one's own economy, at least in the short term. Oh, and people die. And the winning side, if there is one, would have the completely unmanageable and very costly challenge of governing a large, antagonistic territory (think of the challenge of Gaza multiplied by a million).

        • Oh, and people die.

          India has over 1 billion people, some of the highest air pollution on the planet, rape is endemic across the country, and from everything I"ve heard, major cities stink like you wouldn't believe.

          They can afford to lose a few people.

      • They are now the target of the next Cold war (got to keep that military industrial complex going since Russia is pretty obviously not a threat, given that they can't even take a single small country). That means a lot of the manufacturing is going to be gradually shifted over to India.

        A few points on that....

        Just because Russia thought they could ignore the advice to never start a land war in Asia does not mean their navy and air force do not pose a threat to the USA. Russia has a habit of testing the abilities of American and Canadian military forces in and around the Arctic, we should not ignore that. Russia apparently still has a formidable Arctic capable navy with 60+ submarines (quite a few of which are very large and nuclear powered), about a dozen nuclear powered icebreakers, an

        • Interesting analysis.. seems rational.
          Only one thing, does Russia really have any operational tanks from 50 years ago... or anything for a land war?

          I'm reading that they are really stretched thin, the idea of that fat American gangster suggesting a ceasefire, is just a cherry on top, because they are running on fumes. No?

          • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

            by quonset ( 4839537 )

            Only one thing, does Russia really have any operational tanks from 50 years ago... or anything for a land war?

            Russia is fielding T-55 tanks [forbes.com] in Ukraine [forbes.com]. This is on top of early model T-72s which are 50 years old and T-60s which were last updated in the 80s.

            Even worse, Russia has been pulling tanks from storage in a desperate attempt to replace the thousands which have been destroyed, captured, or are unrecoverable, and those stocks appear to be running out [newsweek.com]. Analysis suggests at current destruction rate, Ru

      • Pakistan has twice now looked the other way at Major terrorist attacks happening in India rather than warn the government and twice now nothing has come of it because they're not allowed to go to war when it would screw with capitalism.

        India's official stated position is to foment disturbances and separatist insurgents in Pakistan. Go look up the statements of senior Indian officials (foreign minister, interior minister, etc.), won't be too hard to google. Why would India/Pakistan inform the other side of imminent terrorist attack? During the recent terrorist train hijacking in Pakistan, while the event was ongoing, Indian media gave full coverage to the masked terrorists, lauding them as freedom fighters.

        As to war, India has tried limite

      • David Beckham favorite sushi on a roll.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

      Not sure where they got that 5% number. The US government says 2.8% [bea.gov]

      Independent and Chinese sources say China's growth was about 5% in 2024. [merics.org] Maybe they got them backwards.

    • But it required printing $2 trillion, which is half of China's entire budget serving 4x the population. A few more years of expansion and Americans will be lying dead in the streets from starvation.

      • which is half of China's entire budget serving 4x the population.

        well- serving about 5% of the population, really, lol.

  • Not what the narrative says (Score:4, Informative)

    by backslashdot ( 95548 ) on Saturday April 26, 2025 @03:08PM (#65333123)

    Most conservatives keep repeating the mantra that California is a failed state. The basis for that is that 15 years ago, for one year out of decades, California got one cent more in federal dollars than then put in. One year over a decade ago. And they insist it's' a failed state. A state with a lower homicide rate, and a lower drug OD rate, than Florida is somehow a failed state in the MAGA brain.

    This narrative by cherry-picked selective reposting is the same way MAGAs are made to believe Biden imported 10 million illegal immigrant rapists and murderers, yet somehow the homicide rate reduced. They make you believe that because they only go into a frenzy about murders by illegal immigrants .. they don't tell you that 16 people are murdered every day by citizens -- do you know even one person? Same way people are afraid of plane crashes more than driving though airplane travel is the safest form of transportation per mile AND per trip, with an average annual injury rate of just 0.01 injuries per 100 million passenger miles traveled. Nowadays the FBI and federal govt. resources are chasing easy-to-catch immigrants while ignoring investigations of rape and murder. Immigrants not only have a lower crime rate, but actually reduce the probability of a native becoming a crime victim.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by brunes69 ( 86786 )

      Parts of the narrative are true though.

      California's problem is much like the rest of the US - the benefits of it's GDP are not evenly spread. It exists in highly concentrated pockets - Beverly Hills, Palo Alto, Malibu, Orange Country, etc etc.

      Then you have places like San Francisco - which used to be amazing cities, and have now descended into a lawless hellscape due to flawed state policies and years of indeptitide of local government. There are huge swaths of SF that look like they could be plucked right

    • Most conservatives keep repeating the mantra that California is a failed state.

      Well how about an appraisal from a California Independent. That success is not the result of any great vision by modern leadership. That California is resting on its laurels, of the success of previous generations. Plus a lot of geographical luck. Details explained in a different post on this story, "And now someone from California ...":
      https://news.slashdot.org/comm... [slashdot.org]

    • Re:Not what the narrative says (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Meekrobe ( 1194217 ) on Saturday April 26, 2025 @07:40PM (#65333711)
      Democratic donors just don't fund the culture wars the same way Republicans do. I don't know why we don't have Democratic youtubers that go into deep red states showcasing broken down trailer parks and crackheads and just repeat 24/7 about how conservative policies have failed these people. Yet for the same reason, Republicans all over the country think the world's 4th or 5th economy is a communist hell hole.

    • like to cherry pick stats and use the ones that favor their viewpoint is a known thing, AND it also does NOT mean the stats they choose not to push do not exist. If both sides paid more attention to each other instead of closing their eyes and plugging their ears, they'd each have to confront the stuff they like to ignore and thus would both have to align more closely to reality.

      Now, having said that, I note that you are clearly a partisan of the left in need of facing some of the stuff you chose to ignore,

  • Unpossible! (Score:4, Funny)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday April 26, 2025 @03:13PM (#65333149)
    I have it on good authority from Fox news, newsmax and oan that California is a smoldering hell hole where the only local industries are crime and dying girls hair blue.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      artisanal, organic and gluten free crime to be specific

    • It's true. If you watch Fox News, you should definitely not come to California. Everything is on fire, homeless bands roam the coast shitting on beach towels and masturbating, executives are living in their cars, everyone has to pick one of the LGBTQIA+ letters, the guns have all been taken away, and bears are starting to eat people now that no one can afford food and there's no trash for them rummage in.

      For the love of God, Fox News viewers, stay away...

  • I was born in Sacramento and have watched my state degrade into chaos and filth. With all the property tax, income tax, sales tax, gas tax, breathing tax and yet the state is falling apart. The weather is nearly perfect yet the roads are pitiful. They pay about the most per student but the rankings are near the bottom. What a waste of a good state.

    • Re:Waste of wealth (Score:4, Interesting)

      by SoftwareArtist ( 1472499 ) on Saturday April 26, 2025 @04:37PM (#65333401)

      They pay about the most per student but the rankings are near the bottom.

      Where'd you get that from? According to the data [edweek.org] I could find [worldpopul...review.com] on academic achievement, California is right in the middle of the list, and exactly matches the national average. The actual worst states are, starting from the bottom, Alaska, New Mexico, Louisiana, West Virginia, and Oklahoma. A lot of red states in there.

    • lol- ya. Falling apart.
      They just overtook the 4th largest economy on the planet- but they're just falling the fuck apart.
      That's not wealth- that's income.

  • Wait a minute! (Score:3)

    by Grokew ( 8384065 ) on Saturday April 26, 2025 @03:49PM (#65333259)
    Did California finally secede?
    Can I move to California in order to avoid King Trump?

    • Unfortunately not, but maybe when the rotten cheeto decides to cut us off for some imagined slight, we'll cut of the money we pay the feds in return

      • Don't the feds collect mostly directly?

        But more importantly, he who controls the purse strings controls all. If California decided to secede, it would instantly cripple the US economy. Sending in the military wouldn't help at that point, because you can't force a region to be highly productive at gunpoint.

        It's strange to me to watch large populations willingly funding their own oppression.

        • "Sending in the military wouldn't help at that point"

          Also, who says the military chooses to side with the US? The current deployment of American troops in California makes it the second most powerful military in the world. Add the geographic advantage of being behind a mountain and it's not even clear the US could take California without levelling the entire thing and destroying its value to the union.

  • What, then, is "an economy". (Score:5, Insightful)

    by greytree ( 7124971 ) on Saturday April 26, 2025 @03:56PM (#65333277)
    If the US and China and California all count as "economies" then why does Europe not count? Southern China? Eastern US?

    More bullshit from people who don't care any more.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by godrik ( 1287354 )

      Europe, Southern China, and Eastern US don't have governments and they don't report economic numbers. So you can't really report them easily. I suppose one could estimate them.

      But the US and California both report economic numbers, so you can do rankings.

    • It's just a comparative measure of the state's size. Not a statement about its independence as a country. And yes, EU's economy as a whole is bigger than China... so count California as 5th.

      • It's also a comparative measure of that state's very high (top 4 in the country) GDP per capita.
        Top 5, if we count DC, which isn't a state, and full of Government lobbyists and politicians making between an 8th and a quarter of a mil at the low end.

  • Median wage (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Njovich ( 553857 ) on Saturday April 26, 2025 @04:35PM (#65333391)

    Median wage in California is 10th place, not of the world, but of US states and territories. It's between Minnesota and Colorado.

    California's GDP has nothing to do with the people of California. A bunch of big tech companies and media conglomerates have their HQ there and that's where the income of all their US revenue is registered. Their foreign income is usually registered in some tax haven. This talk about agriculture is nice, but at $60 billion it is barely relevant for the so called 'GDP' number.

    Of course there is a large amount of medium to high income people in California, but overall these numbers just reflect some tech bro/billionaire dream rather than anything that is useful for normal people. Median wage is the best indication of how people of a state actually do.

    As for the comments saying cities in California are a shithole... well they kind of are aren't they?

    The summary makes a big deal about tourism, but with 15 million international tourists per year it's barely even registering on the charts. It's a number similar to croatia. National tourism might be bigger but it's hard to get numbers, compare them or even define it.

    • 5th, actually. 6th if you include DC, which isn't quite fair, but I'll leave it there in case you want to pad your numbers more.
      No idea where you got your 10th from, but I'm guessing it's "median income*********"

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Njovich ( 553857 )

        Nope. If you are going to correct someone please be accurate.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

        I specifically stated median wage for states and territories for which my number is accurate.

        I think you took median household income for only states, which is not what I stated at all and I can go into a whole reasoning here, but the short version is that I believe wage is more representative because it matters more for this number what people get paid for doing a job than how many people are in a household.

        • Nope. If you are going to correct someone please be accurate.

          And if you're going to hold to a fact, try to trace where it comes from, and make sure you have some basic understanding of what it is you're quoting.
          In your case, it's here:
          From the wiki reference [statsamerica.org]
          Unfortunately, statsamerica.org doesn't tell exactly where from the BLS they got these statistics, and as I said before- I have no doubt it's accurate****, for some unknown value of ****.

          To my knowledge, the only real statistical collection of median income numbers in the US is Household Median Income, colle

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by Njovich ( 553857 )

            Dude you messed up, just admit it that you confused wage and household income and stop digging that hole. It's ok. Everyone makes mistakes.

            Here you go with that source you were unable to Google: https://www.bls.gov/oes/specia... [bls.gov]

            To my knowledge, the only real statistical collection of median income numbers in the US is Household Median Income, collected by the Census.

            What do you mean with 'real statistical collection'? You seem to mix up 'census collection' and 'real statistical collection'. Like damn, you don't even know what you are talking about. BLS does real statistical collection using sampling. If you think sampling does not work or is no

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Njovich ( 553857 )

              For that last line I meant median wage.

            • Here you go with that source you were unable to Google: https://www.bls.gov/oes/specia [bls.gov]... [bls.gov]

              Oh, man. If you had actually opened that, you would have seen what I was trying to tell you, lol

              What do you mean with 'real statistical collection'? You seem to mix up 'census collection' and 'real statistical collection'. Like damn, you don't even know what you are talking about. BLS does real statistical collection using sampling.

              lol, incorrect.
              Educate yourself. [bls.gov]

              That one has the same numbers I posted with California 11th for median household income.

              Incorrect.
              That's per-capita, which is average, not median. 5th, median household. There is no median individual (particularly because such a statistic is not collected in the US)

              What is your point even?

              That you're a dumbfuck, lol.

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by Njovich ( 553857 )

                That you're a dumbfuck, lol.

                It's always a little sad when people resort to swearing at you if their arguments run out. Like it just make you look bad really. And I even asked you to stop digging and then you do that one.

                Oh, man. If you had actually opened that, you would have seen what I was trying to tell you, lol

                Not only did I open that, I even made a little script to verify that the numbers were the same as the other ones. You asked for source, I provided you source

                lol, incorrect. Educate yourself. [bls.

    • California's GDP has nothing to do with the people of California.

      California has been a tremendous beneficiary of the integration of China into the US supply chain. There are many, many parts of the economy of California that exist largely because they are the US portal to China, including the tech company presence in the state.

      We are entering a world where China will increasingly be cut out of US economic policy, for better or ill. There's a fantasy that the trend will reverse, but there is a reason the Biden administration didn't reverse all the Trump policies on China

  • congrats! (Score:4, Informative)

    by snowshovelboy ( 242280 ) on Saturday April 26, 2025 @07:11PM (#65333663)

    California also has nearly 50 times as many homeless people than Japan, with a quarter of the population! So congrats, I guess. Keep winning at what matters.

  • The USD-JPY valuation settles in a bit. It can tip the scale either way.

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