California

 

We took a little vacation last week to San Diego. It was splendid. This is the view from our condo at sunset.

 

And this, unfortunately, is the receipt for filling the car once at a gas station that was 20 cents a gallon less than nearby competitors. Ouch. Thanks, Donald.

 

California certainly has its problems (what state doesn’t in Trump’s America?)—prices being a major issue—but I thought I’d list a couple of statistics to show the other side of California and how much the rest of the country relies on the Golden State.

First, according to recently released statistic from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, California’s nominal GDP reached $4.10 trillion in 2024. To put that in perspective, if California were its own country, it would now rank fourth in the world, behind only the United States as a whole ($29.18 trillion), China ($18.74 trillion), and Germany ($4.65 trillion). California just passed Japan ($4.02 trillion). Think about that for a minute. California now has a larger economy than Japan. If growth rates remain steady, it will soon pass Germany. California accounts for over 14 percent of the United States’ GDP.

Second, Republicans love to talk about makers and takers. They hate freeloaders, those who take more from the federal government than they give back. But if you look at maker and taker states, only 19 states in 2024 gave more to the federal government than they received (according to USAFacts, November 3, 2025, drawing on IRS and USASpending.gov data). The largest, by far, was California, which sent $276 billion more to the federal government than it received. Second was New York, at a paltry $76 billion. In case you were wondering, the majority of states that paid more than they received are left leaning, the exceptions being Texas, Ohio, Georgia, Nebraska, Florida, Tennessee, Utah, and Arkansas. And the majority of taker states are right leaning. Interestingly, though, the biggest taker state is Virginia, which leans slightly left, but that is likely because it is home to so many federal employees. To put California in another context, it almost pays for the deficits of the 19 conservative taker states (which collectively contribute $289 billion less than they receive from the federal government).

Third, Trump promised to revive the U.S. manufacturing sector and bring back manly manufacturing jobs. This, of course, is a losing proposition. Manufacturing jobs have been on the decline for decades, and in Trump’s first year of his second term, the U.S. shed 108,000 manufacturing jobs (figure published by the Joint Economic Committee on February 11, 2026). I assume that California is also losing manufacturing jobs, but it still has over 36,000 manufacturing firms employing over 1.1 million Californians (California state publication dated April 23, 2025).

Fourth, agriculture. California produces over one-third of the country’s vegetables and nearly three-quarters of its fruits and nuts. In terms of total U.S. agricultural production, California generates over 13 percent. It also supplies about 20 percent of the nation’s milk. If California were a country, it would rank as the world’s fifth-largest food supplier.

So, despite California’s troubles, just imagine what the United States would be without the Golden State. It’s also a great place to visit.

Oh, and the weather was splendid.