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Actually no its not smaller because the population of Lagos in 2011 was 11.2 million according to UN sources and I was talking about the city proper.
Well city proper is totally arbitrary and completely irreverent to the discussion, so why are you bringing it up? London is a small village by city proper. The biggest city in the world by population is a relatively unknown city in China that covers gigantic area.
Again, NYC and LA are bigger than Lagos, and the comparison is silly anyways because Lagos is desperately poor and has a tiny economy.
When Lagos has 50 million people, and twice the economy of NYC and LA, get back to us with your comparison...
Ok Standard111 and dispo4 listen up. Just because the GDP is large does not make it as powerful as other cities. The reason Chicago matters so much is not because of the GDP but because of the financial institutions (specifically the Chicago Board of Trade and Chicago Mercantile Exchange) are among the, if not the, most important in the world. Chicago has a much larger dictation of the world market than LA.
The GDP already covers the financial contributions, so no. Chicago's GDP is much smaller than that of LA. I think it's even slightly smaller than that of Bay Area and DC at this point.
And Chicago is not a huge financial center by global standards. It's only known for trading, which is a small part of the financial world. There is one main financial center in the U.S., and it isn't Chicago.
Why is there even a debate about the "number 2" city, especially given the op's criteria?
This isn't the past; Los Angeles has shot pass Chicago in most objective measures. With the 2nd largest economy (3rd largest in the world) and as the main contributor to arguably the most popular and widespread cultural forces of the 20th century (e.g. film, television, music), Los Angeles is #2. The debate should really be for the #3 city, which would be a far more interesting debate. Chicago, D.C., and San Francisco all have claims to it.
And finance is not the only economic aspect that impact the world economy. It's only bit a slice of the pie. International trade, for example, is also important. You can tout Chicago's financial institutions, but L.A., while not lacking in finance, can easily point to import/export trade and it's ports (both sea and air). http://www.portoflosangeles.org/pdf/...mbers-2013.pdf
- "Los Angeles' trade with the world topped $403.96 billion in 2012, making it the first and only U.S. Customs district to surpass $400 billion in total exports and total imports in a single year." - "The Los Angeles Customs district regained its ranking as the nation's top Customs district, a position it has held all but two years in the last two decades." - "Los Angeles is the nation's leading Customs districts for trade with 12 of its top 20 trade partners..." - "For the fifth consecutive year, Los Angeles accounted for more than 10 percent of all U.S. trade. For the 12 years prior to 2008, it accounted for more than 11 percent..."
A large GDP is a good indicator of important and powerful cities. GDP is a good starting point because it's the market value of all finalized good and services (which your precious financial institutions are a part of) produced in a given period. It's an solid objective measure. It's exactly what reflects "economical contribution."
There you can read all you like about the Port of Chicago. And those "precious financial institutions" put the gas in your car and the food on your table(without making you bankrupt). GDP is a good start but it is not a perfect indicator of importance. Who do you think buys those imports that are shipped to LA? Not the Stanford grads in their parents basements that's for sure.
There you can read all you like about the Port of Chicago. And those "precious financial institutions" put the gas in your car and the food on your table(without making you bankrupt). GDP is a good start but it is not a perfect indicator of importance. Who do you think buys those imports that are shipped to LA? Not the Stanford grads in their parents basements that's for sure.
And DePaul dropouts keep the commodities exchange humming.
Well city proper is totally arbitrary and completely irreverent to the discussion, so why are you bringing it up? London is a small village by city proper. The biggest city in the world by population is a relatively unknown city in China that covers gigantic area.
Again, NYC and LA are bigger than Lagos, and the comparison is silly anyways because Lagos is desperately poor and has a tiny economy.
When Lagos has 50 million people, and twice the economy of NYC and LA, get back to us with your comparison...
1. Most of your post is rambling and I guess if we do add the metro then surprise! We all end up bowing to Shanghai and Mumbai.
2. The comparison was supposed to be about city proper but since you hijacked it to be about the metro then just ignore it.
3. How god damn large do you think NYC is? It is 8.3 million people large with Lagos at 11.2 million city proper and please get used to the fact that Lagos is larger than LA and NYC in city proper measures.
The whole point of my analogy was to say that bigger isn't always better. Your remark about London is proof even though some cities are larger does not mean that they are better. PS the reason I used Lagos is BECAUSE it is in a poor country to show you that bigger is not better.
If the Chicago commodities market goes under (let's use the Merc,) then the entire world's markets crash. If the CBOT were to go under every farmer in the US would be broke. Food prices around the world would soar. That's how Chicago matters more. Anyway all this arguing wont change the fact that the CME group is like a friggin monopoly so I don't know or care if it is computerized more or less because even if it all does become computerized, Chicago commodities and futures exchanges are still one of the largest in the entire world.
This is actually true and very scary. Most business in some way goes through this and most people who are not in tune with what goes on in the world economically don't have a clue. It's more than just futures - it's the largest options/derivatives market in the world. Very, very, very important thing and one of the most important markets in the entire world. Ask any big time businessman anywhere in the world this and they'll tell you the same thing. This goes far beyond trollism on city data. If that market ever went down, a lot of things around the world would be ****ed. CME Group owns the largest share of the Dow Jones by the way, which is interesting. CME is basically the largest derivatives market in the world and largest ever created.
No matter how you slice it, many things that make businesses actually run go through these markets (CME, CBOE, CDOT). Without it functioning properly, many companies would be in deep trouble. Let's hope that never happens.
But really, I'm not a fan of labeling anything as "most important city" or whatever. I think if any one of these cities got totally screwed over economically, it wouldn't be good for the US.
Last edited by marothisu; 04-24-2014 at 12:26 AM..
L.A. is unquestionably the second city of the U.S. Try living abroad for a while, most people out here only care for less than 5 U.S. cities.
Is Chicago in those 5?
I would imagine the list would be
NYC
LA
DC
SF
LV/Miami/Orlando/Chicago
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