<p>I was looking at a panorama from the Burj al-Khalifa in Dubai and the thought occurred to me: how big is Dubai? Not people, but in dollars. I’ve seen the forests of towers, many of them residential, and have watched House Hunters Int’l. Rather than use old data, I figured out the projected 2013 GDP by taking the projected budget deficit and scaling it using the estimates listed. I came out at about $82B. I checked that against older numbers and it fits.</p>
<p>That didn’t look very large. So I looked up US states by GDP - or GSP - and found Dubai would rank between Nebraska on the high side and New Mexico, meaning between 37th and 38th place. That’s a weird comparison: the vast numbers of new, very tall buildings in a place with less of an economy than Nebraska. My state, MA, is 4.5 times as large, ranking 12th. </p>
<p>I thought for a moment. I know CA is one of the world’s largest economies. So I looked up lists of world economies by GDP. I didn’t realize CA is larger than India, but the US is not typical of the world. Dubai would come in somewhere in the 60’s; there are many rankings.</p>
<p>And I’m left looking at the pictures of all these huge buildings in a place with a GDP not much bigger than Cuba’s.</p>