Alberta Provincial Politics

[CalgaryTiger]

Remember that GDP Per Capita in the United States is ludicrously screwed by the residency of the greatest wealth hoarders in human history. They dont even come close to reflecting either the quality of life nor the average income of the average person.

This is why, if you scroll up from the bottom it takes until you get to Michigan to find a state that isn't a backwater. I am honestly surprised at Michigan's placement so low with its manufacturing, maybe because its climate means there are not many wealth hoarders.

Good reminder GDP per capita is only one measure of many that can be used to understand how a jurisdiction's economy and residents are doing.

 

[trtcttc]

This is why, if you scroll up from the bottom it takes until you get to Michigan to find a state that isn't a backwater. I am honestly surprised at Michigan's placement so low with its manufacturing, maybe because its climate means there are not many wealth hoarders.

Good reminder GDP per capita is only one measure of many that can be used to understand how a jurisdiction's economy and residents are doing.

Manufacturing is low because its not a high productivity sector. A factory workers output is somewhat constrained, while software, a worker on the Microsoft Office apps team is probably generating $10m in GDP a year. North Dakota being so high basically shows an energy economy would place higher the less diversified they are. As Alberta's economy diversifies, the new industries are going to have lower GDP than the oil and gas industry, but no one would say Alberta shouldn't diversify even if it means falling down this ranking.

All of these measures on economic output, I'm not sure is necessarily correlated with living conditions in a place. Canada has lower GDP per capita, but our wealth levels are only slightly lower than many of the US. Sure, a tech company like Google, generates their GDP in California, but the actual benefit of that GDP is spread around the world to its shareholders.