Record debts, record deficits, slower growth, record spending-what people don't

[newbie2008]

understand is this is what happens when your economy is very very LARGE. The larger you are, the harder it is to sustain the same % level of growth. Growing a $100 economy 1% just means adding another dollar of new goods and services a year whereas growing a $1,000,000 economy 1% every year means adding an additional $10,000 of new goods and services every year. The percentages still matter of course and a million dollar economy has a good chance of keeping that sustained growth, but it does face finite resources and dis-economies of scale. So clearly the numbers on everything get larger as a result. For some perspective.

Following previous posts (here and here) on America's ridiculously large economy, here is how the growth in U.S. nominal GDP would translate, in terms of how the typical increases in national output compare to the economic output of various U.S. states:

4% growth in current-dollar GDP ($560 billion of additional output) would be equivalent to adding two new states to the U.S. the size of Washington ($293.5b) and Maryland ($258b).

5% growth in GDP (average growth since 1997) would be equivalent to adding a new state the size of Florida to the U.S. economy.

6% growth in GDP (average growth from 2004-2006) would be equivalent to adding two new states the size of Georgia ($380b) and Ohio ($461b).

7% growth (achieved in some individual quarters like the fourth quarter of 2006), would add almost $1 trillion (corrected) of output to the U.S. economy, equivalent to adding a new state the size of New York to the U.S. economy.

Bottom Line: In an average year, the U.S. economy grows by an amount equivalent to adding the entire economic output of a state like Florida ($713 billion) to the U.S. economy, or a country like Australia ($755 billion). In a great year, the U.S. economy grows by an amount equivalent to adding the economy of another New York state to the U.S. economy, or adding the economy of an entire country like Russia to the U.S economy. http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2007/12/americas-ridiculously-large-economy-iii.html

[the invisib1e hand]

hmm. i think i like this post. interesting, if not challenging, style — not unlike my own. Let’s see what they do with it.

[Mark]

Without a Ross Perot chart, this is useless.

[CIDKauf]

Its kind of interesting to look at the growth of GDP that way. Kind of like imagining if I had a bat and was standing at home plate at Coors Field, it would take a number of tries and one huge blast for me to hit a home run in center field... however, its only about an 8 iron for me.