The world’s fifth largest economy — so what?

Last week, the Bureau of Economic Analysis of the U.S. Department of Commerce released a report about national and state Gross Domestic Product for 2017.

As has been the case for decades, California leads the nation by far in GDP.

Since 2000 and even though the Great Recession, the state’s economy has more than doubled from $1.3 trillion to $2.7 trillion in 2017.

California’s economy by itself is larger than those of the 25 states on the bottom of the list combined.

These states include Iowa, Nevada, Hawaii, Alabama, Kentucky, Utah and some others.

It is also bigger than Florida, Illinois and Pennsylvania if they were one single state.

California itself accounts a seventh of the American economy as a whole.

According to the bureau, the Golden State, famous for its wineries, fruitful agriculture and technology companies is 14.3 percent of the national GDP.

That is almost triple that of New England and larger than the Southwest (Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma together).

At the international level, the state has been up and down compared to other countries since 2000, mostly due to our domestic economic crises.

In 2000, California was fifth compared to other nations, just below the United States, Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Five years later our state fell to eighth, surpassed by China, France and Italy and just above Spain and Canada.

With the Great Recession and its quasi-devastating effect, California fell more and put us on the ninth spot by 2010, now surpassed by Brazil.

Since that year, most of those countries have expanded modestly while losing ground in the rankings.

California’s economy has observed a 44.5 percent climb in the past seven years to become again the world’s fifth largest economy, according to the state Department of Finance.

While all this macroeconomic data sounds terrific to attract big companies and other type of investment, for the average resident, it is simply meaningless.

GDP is composed of all properties, money, infrastructure and production created by the people of a state or a nation, including our expensive coastal homes.

Much of what contributes to our high GDP reflect a cost of living that is out of reach for most farm workers, janitors, bus drivers, office employees, small-business owners and so on.

For these and millions of other laborers the high cost of living, from rent to food and taxes, represent a burden that many Californians cannot afford.

Put in another perspective, California’s GDP means every resident has on average less than $68,000 in homes, vehicles, bank cash and other properties.

The truth is that such figure is far from reality, especially in our Valley, where salaries are very low and unemployment high as sky.

This is why many prefer to live in Mexicali or Yuma, where the cost of living is cheaper.

It seems odd that with the salaries paid in our state, families could have a better quality of life in states that, on paper, have poorer economies.

Candidates, particularly those running for governor, should consider this when developing their plans if elected.

Also, voters should take this into account before filling the box for their preferred candidate.