California's gross domestic product rose by US$127 billion from 2016 to 2017, surpassing US$2.7 trillion, the data said. Meanwhile, the UK's economic output fell slightly over that time when measured in US dollars, due in part to exchange rate fluctuations.
The data demonstrate the sheer immensity of California's economy, home to nearly 40 million people, a thriving technology sector in Silicon Valley, the world's entertainment capital in Hollywood and the nation's salad bowl in the Central Valley agricultural heartland. It also reflects a substantial turnaround since the Great Recession.
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California Overtakes UK to Become World's Fifth Largest Economy
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(Score: 1) by anubi on Sunday May 06 2018, @07:18AM (11 children)
Kinda curious, but since we have just elected marihuana to be legal here, how much of that wealth is now coming in due to marihuana farmers?
I know a couple of marihuana farmers, and they are doing far better than I ever did with an electrical engineering degree - almost an order of magnitude better. And did not have to pay for education either.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by fadrian on Sunday May 06 2018, @01:10PM (4 children)
I wouldn't worry about this for long. If CA's marijuana laws are anything like Oregon's, people will still be signing up for grow licenses even while the oversupply of product is at about 3x what is needed. And the early growers who were initially able to get $1600-1800/lb will be down to $600/lb. and will be going out of business. Although I must say I find the occasional $3 gram at the pot shop to be welcome, it doesn't bode well for small growers, long-term. Nor does it bode well for the stability of the cannabis market - which like all agricultural markets is very likely to have high price volatility. I think price supports are in order.
That is all.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @02:50PM (3 children)
$3 a gram is still $3000 per kilogram. Potato farmers seem to do ok growing plants at $2 per kilogram.
I don't think anyone selling legal grass for $3 / gram needs to go out of business any time soon.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @09:38PM (2 children)
The overhead on pot farming is very high, with mandated security measures eating up a hell of a lot of money.
I would check into that before I jump to conclusions.
(Score: 2) by arulatas on Monday May 07 2018, @01:42PM (1 child)
So you are saying that the money is in the security market for the growers?
----- 10 turns around
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @08:07PM
I don't know about THE money, but I do know that a lot of CCTV operators and security firms are doing a roaring trade. Other than that, it's rather like the booze industry - big taxes, thin margins, specialty retail.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday May 07 2018, @07:06AM (3 children)
So say the people who regard "Cannibis" as a Gift From G-d.
Personally I prefer to call it The Evil Weed.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday May 07 2018, @07:29AM (2 children)
I feel compelled to test all things and keep that which is good, as instructed. Everything is here for some reason. Ok, I will call it cannabis. It has a number of unusual properties.
( Ok, I do not do everything as instructed, as if I sincerely believe the instructions are in error, common sense rules. Hilarity often results from people following orders to the letter. YouTube is full of it. )
Although I don't seem to be affected much by cannabis, I have some friends who are - and they seem to derive much pleasure from it. Who am I do deny it? All I can figure out is some business man is pissed because someone got what they wanted, and some business hand did not get a piece of the action.
So, the result so far has been the most undesirable business men around - gangs - have been profiting handsomely by the artificial scarcity of what should be about as common as tree prunings - which is hauled by the truckload from neighborhoods.
So, now our addicts have to steal from their neighbors to finance their toke, which by all intents should have been free for the growing. And those funds are handed over to gangs to buy military-grade assault weaponry to protect their action from the authorities. Gees, what a waste.
Yes, I would probably grow some cannabis even though I only eat some now and then... I think its a gorgeous plant to look at. I have several vines around the house that look a bit like cannabis, but they are not nearly as lush as a real cannabis plant.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 1) by anubi on Monday May 07 2018, @07:41AM
Whoops.. my bad... the proper spelling hasn't updated yet.
s/cannabis/cannibis/
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Tuesday May 08 2018, @12:04AM
Sometimes I think of growing it just for the aroma.
I don't smoke it because it makes me profoundly depressed.
Were I to grow it I'd just give it to cancer patients
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @01:26PM (1 child)
If you think ambiguous drug-use creates wealth you are a fucking moron.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @06:07PM
as opposed to what? pigs stealing from the whole nation to fund their war on freedom while they break up families by kidnapping non-violent offenders and forcing them into monster school?
(Score: 0, Troll) by frojack on Sunday May 06 2018, @07:54AM (5 children)
Meanwhile the state itself can't pay its bills, and is on the verge of bankruptcy, they can't afford to take care of the roads hand have been closing parks.
The amount of rainfall determines the ups and downs of industry in the state more than any political management.
Shipping out large chunks of cash to central american countries has been slowing an illegal immigrant inflows have dropped off recently. Its amazing how much better things are when you don't ship all your money out of the state trying to save a buck on cheap farm labor.
The whole place is an unguided missile, and nobody knows what is going on.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Bobs on Sunday May 06 2018, @12:17PM (4 children)
Been consuming right-wing propaganda again?
The California Governor, Jerry Brown, (Democrat) latest budget has a surplus and includes a $5 Billion deposit into the State's rainy-day, emergency fund.
California is doing extremely well, financially.
And
One of the biggest risk factors identified in the financial forecast for California is the impact of the massive deficit spending by the Federal government controlled by Trump and the Republicans.
Compare California to the catastrophes that are the Kansas, Louisiana and Oklahoma state budgets under the GOP drive to cut taxes on the wealthy and services for everyone else:
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @03:00PM (1 child)
Great plans! I have plans to flap my ears and fly to the moon. My plan is as likely to happen as a politician sticking to a budget.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @05:02PM
Some people just can't let go of their hate. No matter how much evidence they are given those prejudices just ferment.
(Score: 4, Touché) by PartTimeZombie on Sunday May 06 2018, @10:27PM
It's weird how the US right wing wants to hold onto their trickle down economics despite the idiot Reagan nearly bankrupting the joint in the 1980's.
I wonder if it is because so many of them are religious, so are used to magical thinking.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @12:06AM
Jerry Brown's budget is as meaningful as Donald Trump's: hardly at all.
California's legislature is not bound by Jerry's plans any more than the federal house or senate are bound by Donald's.
It might as well be printed on toilet paper.
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Sunday May 06 2018, @08:55AM (7 children)
I always thought that California was part of the United States …
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @11:26AM (4 children)
I mean hey, if you just forcibly relocated all the liberals to the west coast, you could finally have that conservative utopia you've been dreaming of every state east of it. Of course then you couldn't brag about 'from sea to shining sea' unless you did something like take a token border strip like seattle -> canada or san diego to mexico to ensure your dominion spans from the pacific to atlantic.
Then again. All those filthy liberals boxed away from the rest of you! :)
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday May 07 2018, @07:05AM (3 children)
Some manner of libertarians got the idea that they should all move to Vermont as it is a sparsely-populated state, so they could dominate the city and state governments.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @01:29PM
Yes, pursuit of Libertarian Utopia through co-opting government institutions seems like pursuit of Communist Utopia through taking over Capitalistic companies. And probably ends just as well.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 07 2018, @03:05PM
They need to recalibrate. New Hampshire is the place they want, since that state is halfway there already. Vermont is so far to the left it about falls off the spectrum; we live in the most progressive neighborhood in Brooklyn, but upon visiting Vermont and witnessing a town parade my wife commented, "What a bunch of f-ing hippies!"
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @06:13PM
you're remembering wrong. it's the free state project [fsp.org] and it's new hampshire.
(Score: 3, Funny) by fritsd on Sunday May 06 2018, @04:21PM (1 child)
cartoon [limitstogrowth.org]
(the text under the cartoon is hilarious but does not really present the same picture as the cartoon)
(Score: 3, Insightful) by julian on Sunday May 06 2018, @07:09PM
That website is like what Alex Jones would create if he got half an economics degree and started regularly taking his thorazine.
(Score: 5, Informative) by turgid on Sunday May 06 2018, @10:25AM (8 children)
The gift that keeps on giving, and we haven't even left yet. By the way, 35000 people marched through Glasgow yesterday in support of Scottish independence.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 06 2018, @11:29AM (4 children)
Are there pictures?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Also Scottish independence march without kilts seems like an English independence march without tea :)
(Score: 4, Informative) by rleigh on Sunday May 06 2018, @12:03PM (3 children)
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/16207875.Tens_of_thousands_join_march_for_independence_in_the_biggest_public_demo_since_2003_rally_against_Iraq_war/ [heraldscotland.com] has a couple and also https://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/scotland/648534/thousands-of-independence-supporters-stage-march-through-glasgow/ [thecourier.co.uk]
I got overtaken yesterday on the A90 back to Dundee by a couple of bikers with Saltires flying on the back of their bikes; was wondering what was going on until I read the news last night!
(Score: 4, Informative) by turgid on Sunday May 06 2018, @12:08PM
Of course, the official narrative from Westminster is that "there's no appetite for Scottish independence." We'll see when the Brexit disaster full unfolds.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Informative) by turgid on Sunday May 06 2018, @02:50PM
The BBC did report about it in the Scotland section [bbc.co.uk] of their website but the Guardian had it on the front page on the national news [theguardian.com].
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 07 2018, @03:16PM
It seems like the clock is ticking on Scottish independence. It seems the pro- forces were rather counting on North Sea oil to help finance an independent Scotland, but as EVs and alternative energy burgeon that cash cow will wane.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 3, Troll) by realDonaldTrump on Sunday May 06 2018, @11:44PM
They’re angry over borders, they’re angry over people coming into the country and taking over, nobody even knows who they are. They’re angry about many, many things. They took back control of their country. It’s a great thing. I think it’s a great thing that happened. People are angry, all over the world. People, they’re angry.
When the pound goes down, more people are coming to Turnberry, frankly. For traveling and for other things, I think it very well could turn out to be a positive.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 07 2018, @03:12PM (1 child)
That doesn't sound like many people. Is that large there?
I have read that the recent referendum on Scottish independence voted to stay because people were afraid to leave the EU (Brussels had told the Scots their accession to the EU would neither be immediate nor assured). I suppose that would tilt things the other way now that the UK as a whole voted to leave the EU. But is a re-vote a given after having spent so much time and energy recently?
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by turgid on Monday May 07 2018, @04:43PM
Yes, it's very large for Scotland. It's a tenth of a city. There are over twice as many people in Greater London than the whole of Scotland. Despite this, Scotland retains its own laws, legal system, education system and health service etc.
I refuse to engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed opponent [wikipedia.org].
(Score: 3, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Monday May 07 2018, @06:59AM
Right in the middle of the Great Recession a body shop recruiter told me that there were 24,000 homeless people in Silicon Valley.
I expect the reason she said that to me is that I was openly publishing such essays as The Ethical Engineer [warplife.com] and Hilarity Ensues [warplife.com].
(I'll fix their borked markup Real Soon Now.)
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Monday May 07 2018, @10:01AM
The economy in California is absolutely booming. That's to be expected. Because we did the biggest Tax Cut in the history of the world. California has so many of our big cyber companies. Apple, Google, Intel, Facebook, Oracle and many more. Under my predecessors, they had to send their money overseas. The Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich. No more. My Republicans in Congress worked very hard on the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act. And I signed it beautifully, with a very special pen -- Cross Century II. Same pen Obama used -- one of the VERY FEW things he did right. And when I went to Beverly Hills I got tremendous donations. Folks there are so happy they voted for me. Very grateful for the privilege of being allowed to vote for me. You're welcome!!
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Monday May 07 2018, @03:25PM (1 child)
I'm a little surprised California accomplished this only now. If you chopped it off and plunked it in the middle of Europe, it would dominate. It has everything it needs to be a successful country on its own, from a highly diversified economy that spans high-tech to agriculture, to thriving cultural centers, to deep water ports, excellent natural resources and wonders, and room to grow.
People in other parts of the country often lose sight of all that because of the antics of an obnoxious few in a couple coastal areas.
It's funny when you think California shares another parallel with the UK, in that it has a restive north that wants to split off from the south (the state of Jefferson [wikipedia.org]).
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 07 2018, @08:15PM
It also has water. So much water. All the water! Waterama!
You know, except for the part where if it left the US and other states started taking back water rights, California would have to build massive desalination plants to have any hope of maintaining those burgeoning, successful communities.
Environmental engineers are rather sceptical of California's independent viability. Something about dihydrogen monoxide.