A fascinating map

The subject that this map covers is one that I wonder about quite often. It never occurred to me to actually do the work and make this map, but I’m glad there was someone less lazy than I. It helps if you know the United States fairly well.

What it is is a map of the United States in which each state is renamed for a country of the world with an economy the same size as that of the state. Ergo, Maine, where I was born, is labeled Morocco because the gross domestic product is about the same.

Of course the one I usually think about is Italy and it just isn’t on that map. It’s tempting to compare Italy to California because both are long north to south, have a variety of climates, lots of tourism, lots of coast, an entertainment industry, wine and I know both of them. It is France that resembles California on this map. Other than the shape I can think of many resemblances among those two, too. Italy is a little smaller ($30 bn) than France as measured by GDP, but is too big for Texas, which is next below California.

Some surprises await. It takes the whole of South Carolina to match tiny Singapore, where discipline and focus really pay off. Norway matches Minnesota, whereas I thought with her oil she would be stronger. Ireland is the new tiger of the EU and yet Nevada with her gambling matches her. I wouldn’t have thought of Algeria matching West Virginia in any way. I think I need to go see Algeria.

In spite of the fact that many nations are hard pressed by the new oil prices, being a major producer of oil didn’t make those countries that are into bigger economies. It’s true that they might be completely off the map without petroleum, but with it they still are not giants.

The more I look at that map, the more things come to mind. It shows me, too, that there are lots of questions I ask myself that I never bother to answer and that’s not good.

The biggest question this morning, after looking and thinking for a while, is: how much effort did it take to wreck the dollar when reality is represented by that map?