A strange map—it gives an equivalent nation in GNP for each state in the US:
Some are weirdly appropriate: Minnesota compares with Norway, France and California are mates, and Dick Cheney’s home state shares something else in common with Uzbekistan. Texas and Canada, though…hey, do you think if we tell them that it will double their GNP, that they’ll take Texas off our hands?
This link gives some actual national GDP numbers:
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/eco_gdp-economy-gdp-nominal
I didn’t have time to check the data against the map but at first glance the numbers didn’t quite seem to add up.
Maybe someone out there with a better grasp of economics and more numerically literate than myself could comment on them.
BTW just for shits and giggles someone could do an overlay comparing annual CO2 output for the same dataset.
Some are weirdly appropriate…
What about Holland = Pennsylvania. [Actually, I believe Pennsylvania Dutch is a misnomer, them being of German (= Deutsch) descent.]
I think it is also interesting that Minnesota and Connecticut are both in the top 5 for per capita tax burden and at the same time savings rate.
I wonder how conservative economists explain that? Perhaps it is because both states spend more on building a solid infrastructure for business, allowing us to make an income which allows for savings?
It’s just a question based on two sets of data with no causal relationship shown, I know, but still…
Amph Said:
I resemble that remark. My father, while visiting Japan, had a fellow tourist come up to him and say, “You’re from Lancaster! I recognize the accent!”
Well, fifty minutes north, but close enough. Our ancestors are from Germany, with “Dutch” being, as you noted, a mistranslation of “Deutsch.” The languages have drifted considerably in two centuries. Pennsylvania Dutch is a little more slurred and gutteral than German is. My grandfather spoke it, my parents and I speak a few words but no more than that.
We also dragged the Moravians over here with us. Sorry ’bout that.
Morph
Really eerie! Massachusetts, like Belgium, is of course known for producing really great chocolate…
< .< >.>
Would give me the political satisfaction of moving to Canada in disgust, but in a much more convenient fashion.
What really gets me, look at Tennessee. It has the same GDP as Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia.
We need to kick the oil habit so we don’t have to koutou to someplace that makes as much money as Tennessee.
Flip it. 9/11 happened because of bad blood in a place with the economic clout of Tennessee.
Duke
The Alabama / Iran pairing of backward theocracies is good too.
The author probably had several countries to choose form for each state, and tailored his choices according to his own biases (which I do not always disagree with).
For example, as Steve points out, comparing Alabama to Iran is priceless.
Speaking as a Canadian, you can keep Texas. (No offense.)
“Speaking as a Canadian, you can keep Texas. (No offense.)”
I don’t blame you. I doubt even Mexico would want it back.
It would be more enlightening to show each state vs. other countires as per capita GDP. While we are number one ( I think ) in that category nation wide, it would be interesting to see which states compare to which other less afluent countries.
do you think if we tell them that it will double their GNP, that they’ll take Texas off our hands?
No.
We already have Alberta. That’s quite enough, thank you…
Ohio! Now I’m depressed. At least my current country of residence matches up to California…
Hey now! Not all of Alberta nor all Albertans are worth of such scorn (she said from her Calgary basement apartment because she can’t afford a house here). No doubt we could say the same for Texas.
Although Alberta is bigger than Texas, I do believe…
You need to decide if you will use raw GDP at exchange or GDP purchasing power parity. However, I note Wisconsin could be South Africa or Argentina or…
Check the CIA Fact Book website for deatils on any country.
Fernando. I did check the numbers against statemaster and they seem pretty close:
California: 1.5 trillion
France: 2 trillion
New York: 900 billion
Brazil: 600 billion
Idaho: 43 billion
Ukraine: 65 billion
Nebraska: 61 billion
Czech Republic: 107 billion
So, overall, pretty close. Certainly within an order of magnitude.
Wait a minute! I live in Texas, thank you very much. Despite its reputation to the contrary, the state’s not one big, backwater, Bible-thumping, Deliverance-like experience . . . although we do sincerely regret the whole George W. Bush thing. Our bad.
That does it, I’m not buying any more of your albums!
Pretty close? New York’s number is 50% higher than Brazil’s. That’s not “pretty close” by any stretch of the imagination.
Interesting parallels on some, sure … but … Arizona and Thailand?
Hmph, not even close on that one. We haven’t even had a military action in more than a century, and only in certain parts of Flagstaff and Tucson can you find people smiling.
BTW, PZ, when you were here last week you left your cold weather behind. Take it back, please.
I think the matching of Texas and Canada is quite appropriate. Both have healthy economies. Both like oil. Both have bilingual populations, and a degree of political issue over that. Both have a past frontier dynamic. Both have long, lonely roads in their hinterlands.
I echo Jason’s sentiments, about that Bush thing. Sorry, our bad.
Within 50% is certainly “pretty close” by many minor stretches of imaginations. Is there an astronomer around to explain “order of magnitude” for us? I think for many first-attempt estimates (distances to stars, age of geologic features, time since speciation event) being within 50% of the ‘correct’ value would be considered a pretty good estimate.
Wouldn’t be the first time Canada and Texas have gotten together on something. A couple years ago I recall hearing an NPR segment on Canadian public school teaching and administration strategies being adopted by Texas schools because the wake of Mr. Bush’s governorship was less than conducive to higher grades and graduation rates.
Interestingly enough, just such a map appears in the Feb/Mar issue of National Wildlife. (I’m sitting in their offices, where my sister is an editor, right now.) The entire West Coast, plus Nevada, equals the UK. Everything east of Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and the Dakotas equals China.
The average American private debt is rather unimaginable by European standards… the correlation with taxes holds that far…
ROTFL!!!
The average American private debt is rather unimaginable by European standards… the correlation with taxes holds that far…
ROTFL!!!
I’m LOL at NH = Bangladesh. Total polar opposites, except for GNP equivalents?
That map would be much more useful if it labeled the American states as well. The only ones I can pick off with real certainty are California, Texas, Hawaii and Alaska. I have a good idea of where a lot of the others are generally, but others, I have no idea whereabouts in the US they are. Dakota? No idea. Virginia? Um, in the bottom/east 2/3rds. I found my country, Australia, on the map and I’m guessing its Illinois, because Chicago is in Illinois (right?) so it must be fairly large. And it’s near one of the big lakes.
But I’m nowhere near ignorant. I could pick out every one of the countries on a globe besides a couple of the Central and South American ones, and those I wouldn’t be far off.
Oh, I know Florida too. So that’s five.
I found my country, Australia, on the map and I’m guessing its Illinois, because Chicago is in Illinois (right?) so it must be fairly large. And it’s near one of the big lakes.
That’s Ohio matching with Australia.
Other similarities aside I have to point out that here in the (not so frozen anymore) North have WAAAYYYY better beer than that swill they drink in Texas.
And that’s all that really matters…
Magnum, I’ve always wondered how much internal American geography non-USAians have. You see a lot of flack about how kids today in the US don’t know where Belorus is but I’ve never seen a comparitive study on how well European kids (for instance) can define the states of the USA (which is about as big as Europe).
That said, I must admit I would not be able to label any of the eastern states of Australia correctly unless it was due to luck. Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria… no clue other than they’re on your east coast. You smart cookies made the others pretty easy though.
Oh, the Australia state is Ohio (Cleveland is on that lake, Chicago is on the next one over to the west) btw.
The “order of magnitude” scale doesn’t make a whole lot of sense here, because the available range of GDPs isn’t that broad. Once you take the five biggest economies out of the picture (US, China, Japan, India, Germany), the next group is tightly clustered: UK ($1.8 tril), France ($1.79 tril), Italy ($1.7 tril), Russia ($1.6 tril), Brazil ($1.5 tril), Canada ($1.1 tril), South Korea ($1.1 tril), Mexico ($1 tril), etc. So correct within an “order of magnitude” doesn’t seem all that impressive.
The World Factbook GDPs don’t seem to match up all that closely (probably because GDP doesn’t measure exactly the same thing as GNP). And purchasing power parity vs. raw numbers can make a huge difference. I don’t read Norwegian, so I have no clue as to the methodology behind the map.
“Other similarities aside I have to point out that here in the (not so frozen anymore) North have WAAAYYYY better beer than that swill they drink in Texas.”
Shiner Bock is not swill.
We’d be foolish not to take Texas. As a Canadian I’m very fond of Texas. Just not the bush. We have enough bush. Mostly in Alberta.
“Shiner Bock is not swill.”
Yes it is. It’s not even a real Bock. If you want to hold up decent beer from Texas, go for something from St. Arnold’s in Houston, Live Oak here in Austin or Real Brewing in Blanco.
I’m cool with sending Texas to Canada, just leave Austin behind. Canada’s too cold.
I’ve been all over the place and Texas isn’t so bad. The Brits I’ve met want to know how Americans could have elected Bush. I tell them half of us didn’t vote for him. Give us a break. Texans like myself are getting them same raw deal from blue staters who want to lump us together. Not all of us are Bible-thumping right-wingers (although I confess our leaders mostly are).
And by the way, Mexicans don’t seem to want to avoid Texas as someone wrote. I learned Spanish for fun, but it’s no coincidence that my job pays bonuses for knowing it fluently.
I think the matching of Texas and Canada is quite appropriate. Both have healthy economies. Both like oil. Both have bilingual populations, and a degree of political issue over that. Both have a past frontier dynamic. Both have long, lonely roads in their hinterlands.
Right now everyone I know who is Canadian is hoping they will die so they can start spinning around in their graves to hear you (and others) say that!!!!
ttrentham writes:
Hey, today is just practice for real winter. ;-)
Hey — Bush quarterbacked the stupid war, but Blair was his waterboy.
And I didn’t even mention Margaret Thatcher.
(oops I just did)
Sonja (100% Norwegian) from Minnesota, the only state that never voted for Reagan or either Bush.
yeah, out Texas with Canada! Then tell all these Texans that they’ll have to learn French too!!! Their heads would explode!
I meant PUT Texas with Canada!!!
I say we give Texas back to Mexico, like it was sposed to be. Trade ’em for Baja so California can get bigger and have more great beaches!
North Dakota: Ecuador. South Dakota: Croatia. Virginia: Austria.
Very badly. They are for the most part not taught.
North Dakota: Ecuador. South Dakota: Croatia. Virginia: Austria.
Very badly. They are for the most part not taught.
yeah, out Texas with Canada! Then tell all these Texans that they’ll have to learn French too!!! Their heads would explode!
… as would those poor unfortunates who would have to teach them.
“Oh, the Australia state is Ohio (Cleveland is on that lake, Chicago is on the next one over to the west) btw. ”
Ooh, so sorry. Indiana is the state directly to the west of Ohio, Illinois is one more state over.
Sarcastro:
“Magnum, I’ve always wondered how much internal American geography non-USAians have.”
Not much. They don’t teach that at school or anything.
People should at least know the location of the most important US states. It’s ridiculous to expect that an American should know the location of the Netherlands but a European doesn’t have to know the location of California, New York, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Florida, Texas etc.
I, of course, know the location of every state in the US.
The GDP Per Capita ranking of EU countries and US states is far better. US states are, of course, on top (well there’s Luxembourgh there too).
Key of Country -> State:
Algeria -> West Virginia
Argentina -> Michigan
Australia -> Ohio
Austria -> Virginia
Bangladesh -> New Hampshire
Belarus -> Alaska
Belgium -> Massachusetts
Brazil -> New York
Canada -> Texas
Chile -> Mississippi
Croatia -> South Dakota
Czech Republic -> Nebraska
Denmark -> Indiana
Dominican Republic -> Vermont
Ecuador -> North Dakota
Finland -> Colorado
France -> California
Greece -> Connecticut
Hong Kong -> Maryland
Hungary -> New Mexico
Indonesia -> Louisiana
Iran -> Alabama
Ireland -> Nevada
Israel -> Oregon
Korea Republic -> Florida
Malaysia -> Kansas
Mexico -> Illinois
Morocco -> Maine
Netherlands -> Pennsylvania
New Zealand -> District of Columbia
Nigeria -> Hawaii
Norway -> Minnesota
Pakistan -> Arkansas
Peru -> Utah
Philippines -> Oklahoma
Poland -> Missouri
Portugal -> Kentucky
Romania -> Delaware
Russia -> New Jersey
Saudi Arabia -> Tennessee
Singapore -> South Carolina
South Africa -> Wisconsin
Sweden -> North Carolina
Switzerland -> Georgia
Thailand -> Arizona
Tunisia -> Montana
Turkey -> Washington
Ukraine -> Idaho
Uzbekistan -> Wyoming
Venezuela -> Iowa
Viet Nam -> Rhode Island
spin sycle:
No, silly. We’d make the other Canadians learn Spanish. The Québécois, too. Eventually, they would thank us for bringing them a cleaner Romance language. ;-)
Woohoo – our economy is as big as the District of Columbia. We must be doing something right.
Damn.. Now I have to worry about 411 scams coming from Hawaii? lol
Minnesota, the only state that never voted for Reagan or either Bush.
Go Vikings!!!! Minnesota rules!
(and to think as a kid growing up in NY I was not sure if Minnesota was a state or a city out west somewhere…
Magnum: That map would be much more useful if it labeled the American states as well. The only ones I can pick off with real certainty are California, Texas, Hawaii and Alaska.
Sarcastro: I’ve always wondered how much internal American geography non-USAians have.
I had no idea that that was Pennsylvania, but: Wikipedia is our friend, too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:United_States_Administrative_Divisions.png
What would be quite interesting is to compare this list to the ordering by population. I already notice two which would be in different places. Canada/Texas France/California.
amph: That’s what I understand as well.
As for US internal geography, I was never taught it here (well, except for perhaps the location of Washington as a world capital) in Canada, but sort of absorbed it from my father (quite the amateur geographer) and trips to the US (and living there for 2.5 years more recently).
Most people outside of the US probably aren’t taught much about our geography, my husband (Canadian) doesn’t know more than probably half the states and that’s probably because we have been together for almost 10 years. I’m better with Canadian geography except for the Maritimes for some reason, maybe because I have never been out that way.
As for Australia, here’s a map with a purpose. It wants people to vote for an attraction to put on a Monopoly board. I voted for Australia Zoo because my sister was a member before Steve Irwin died and they offered to help her find hotels and stuff when she ordered tickets and for Melbourne because that’s where her boyfriend lives. Yeah, good reasons! There are a couple glaring omissions there though-no Ediacara Hills and no Shark Bay! :^(
Maine is closest to Morocco?! There’s something odd about that…
Ignoring the TX/Canada remarks, did anybody notice where the DI ended up?
Seems like they would feel right at home there.
There are only three political subdivisions in the United States that really matter: the East Coast, the Left Coast, and Flyoverland.
I don’t think the comparsion between US sub-national units and actual nation-states in Europe or elsewhere is really fair. A more on the point comparsion would be labeling German states. I doubt anyone but Germans and people who’ve studied German or lived in Germany would do well at that.
This does not, however, lessen the shameful geographical illiteracy Americans really do have. I doubt most of us could label all of our own states on a map either. I can and have, but experience suggests this is unusual.
Why “of course”?
(I know all, too, and the provinces of Canada, but that’s because I’m interested in geography in the first place, need to know where all those dinosaurs come from, and followed electoral-vote.com in 2004…)
And the ranking in proportions of Working Poor? Or in proportions of people with 2 or 3 jobs?
Why “of course”?
(I know all, too, and the provinces of Canada, but that’s because I’m interested in geography in the first place, need to know where all those dinosaurs come from, and followed electoral-vote.com in 2004…)
And the ranking in proportions of Working Poor? Or in proportions of people with 2 or 3 jobs?
Much as we’d like to help with your Texas problem, there may be serious obstacles. The first that comes to mind is the naming of the Red River. Growing up in Winnipeg, I never figured out that all those cowboy songs we used to hear on the radio were not about our Red River Valley.
Likewise, we already have our own blue-eyed Arabs in Alberta. It would be confusing to have to deal with so much duplication.
You can keep Texas, thanks. Maybe though, if we can work a deal with Belarus…
I could get some German Bundesländer right, a couple of French départements, some Spanish comunidades, Italian regioni, a couple of Canadian provinces and many US states – but that’s because I’m another geography enthusiast, I was never taught any of that in school. What I did have to learn was the names, locations and capitals of the 26 Brazilian states.
hard to do co2 emissions, at least from that dataset, since the state wide numbers only have co2 emissions from electrical power plants, and some of the countries have mroe than one “best match” state:
Turkey: Texas:
Kazakhstan: Florida:
Malaysia: Indiana:
Uzbekistan: Ohio:
Pakistan: Pennsylvania:
Greece: Illinois:
Romania: Kentucky:
Philippines: Alabama:
Algeria: West Virginia
United Arab Emirates Michigan:
Portugal: Georgia:
Austria: Missouri:
Colombia: North Carollina
Singapore: California:
Finland: Tennessee:
Chile: New York
Sweden: Louisiana:
Vietnam: Wisconsin:
Bulgaria: Arizona:
Serbia and Montenegro Wyoming:
Ireland: Oklahoma:
Libya: Virginia:
Switzerland: Colorado:
Slovakia: Iowa:
Norway: Kansas:
Qatar: South Carolina
Turkmenistan: Minnesota:
Morocco: Utah:
New Zealand North Dakota
Cuba: Mississippi:
Bangladesh: New Mexico
Azerbaijan: Maryland:
Peru: Arkansas:
Oman: Montana:
Ecuador: Nevada:
Tunisia: Massachusetts:
Dominican Republic Nebraska:
Croatia: New Jersey
Bosnia and Herzegovina Washington:
Kenya: Connecticut:
Burma: Oregon:
Mongolia: Hawaii:
Ghana: Maine:
Costa Rica Delaware:
Tajikistan: New Hampshire
Botswana: Alaska:
Senegal: South Dakota
Nepal: Rhode Island
Equatorial Idaho:
Dominica: Vermont:
Niue: District of Columbia
I, for one, welcome our Canuckistanian overlords, as long as they’ll allow us to keep using real money.
Real bock or not, Shiner is a damn drinkable beer. Reserve the “swill” comments for Pearl, please.
The popular image of Texans as redneck, bible-thumping, money-grubbing yahoos is not correct; it’s just that those are the only people willing to run for office down here. The rest of us are reasonably smart, well-educated, tolerant, and know how to pronounce “nuclear” correctly.
We’ll be happy to take Texas. You guys will, of course, have to keep all the Texans…
Brian: “It would be more enlightening to show each state vs. other countires as per capita GDP.”
Enlightening, but not very interesting. Because the top 18 US states outrank GDP per capita for everyone but Luxembourg. At #2, Norway would fit between New Hampshire and Hawaii. The state with the poorest GDP per capita, Mississippi, ranks between China and Spain, #24 and #25 on the list of countries.
Historically speaking, wouldn’t it make more sense to give Louisiana back to Canada? My ex-wife was born in Louisiana, and when we visited Montreal, everyone was especially nice to her and said things like “you’re half Canadian already!”.
Texas is still “El Norte de Mexico”, at least culturally speaking.
Shiner Bock is damn fine beer. (I don’t care for Shiner Blond, however)
Plus we have lots of fine Mexican brews like Negra Modelo.
But I will allow that Lone Star Beer IS swill. National Beer of Texas My Ass. St. Arnold’s is okay…appeals to the beer snob in me; but if I were still the drinkin’ sort,
I’d still reach for a Shiner Bock or a Negra Modelo first.
Labatt’s (sp?) was my fav Canadian brew; Molson was ok, too.
But none of the Cannuck imports ever really grabbed me, tastewise.
Belhaven Scottish Ale, on the other hand, now that was the nectar of the gods. Newcastle Brown Ale a close second.
Let Canada have all the cool places in Texas, like Austin and Houston and I’ll be the first one in line to sign up for dual citizenship. ;-)
The Washington/Turkey, Oregon/Israel link is sublime in its suggestion of our uneasy alliance against the nuts around us.
…Oh, and more topically, consider the Discovery Institute/Science Research Foundation connection.
“Texas and Canada, though…hey, do you think if we tell them that it will double their GNP, that they’ll take Texas off our hands?
No way. As Phil Sheridan said: “If I owned Hell and Texas, I’d rent out Texas and live in Hell.”
Labatt’s (sp?) was my fav Canadian brew;
When we passed through — actually, when we broke down in Manitoba in 1980, Joe and I discovered Labatt’s Velvet Cream Stout. Wonderful. Better than Guinness, no kidding. Apparently they only make it in Manitoba. I hope they still do. We couldn’t find it in BC, even.
Labatt’s Blue: adequate. Molson: well, OK.
I’m sentimental about Shiner, as it saved our lives in Little Rock at least once. In Arkansas, the Babtists are the dangerously loose-living liberals, no shit.
The liquor store where we got it had a pet piglet. (Razorbacks, y’see; q.v.) When I asked how the pig felt about the wonderful perfumes wafting from the barbeque joint across the road, the owner told us it had got loose in the shop one night and torn open and eaten all the bags of fried pork rinds. Go figure.
We Francifornians border on Israel, Ireland and Thailand, and Gemany isn’t on the map at all.
I guess that means we can have a nice bagel, some stout and a bit of curry and forget about that Maginot project.
For the record, this Canadian can name and locate all of the US states, all the European and Asian countries, most South American countries, and all the Aussie states. But man, do I ever suck at identifying African countries (with the exception of the obvious ones like Egypt, South Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, etc.)
I don’t think any of us should pat ourselves on the back regarding our l33t geographical knowledge until we stop forgetting Africa. Me, I’m working on it.