U.S. States vs Latin American countries/regions (cost, country, place)

[RudyOD]

So, there is another thread on here that asks what Latin American country is most like the United States/American. Which proves to be a very difficult question to answer as the U.S. is a huge place (geographically and population wise), with lots of cultural variation from region to region.

I say let us take things down a notch and compare U.S. States individually to their respective kindred souls in Latin America.

I will go first:

California and Chile
Why? They both have strong wine cultures, rugged mountains, hug the Pacific, extreme landscapes (we have Death Valley + Yosemite; Chile has the Andes + Tierra de Fuego), relatively well educated populaces . Also, I think, of all of Latin America Chile is probably the most innovative (as California is in the states) and attracting the most tech investment. Not to mention that they both also attract a lot of immigrant talent (Chile more recently), whether skilled or unskilled. Due to our geography, both California and Chile have felt relatively isolated from the rest of their respective regions.

Some major differences: Chile lacks California's diversity, and California with 38 million (as opposed to Chile's 17 million) is much more heavily populated. Also, Chile just really has Santiago as a global city, California has San Francisco and Los Angeles - some could make an argument for San Diego. California's GDP is in the 2 TRILLIONS and Chile's, at around 268 billion, is 1/8th of that. As for culture, Chile just doesn't have the influence in Latin America that California has in the U.S./the world when it comes to music, media, film and television.

All in all, Chile is like California's younger brother/sister.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by RudyOD

So, there is another thread on here that asks what Latin American country is most like the United States/American. Which proves to be a very difficult question to answer as the U.S. is a huge place (geographically and population wise), with lots of cultural variation from region to region.

I say let us take things down a notch and compare U.S. States individually to their respective kindred souls in Latin America.

I will go first:

California and Chile
Why? They both have strong wine cultures, rugged mountains, hug the Pacific, extreme landscapes (we have Death Valley + Yosemite; Chile has the Andes + Tierra de Fuego), relatively well educated populaces . Also, I think, of all of Latin America Chile is probably the most innovative (as California is in the states) and attracting the most tech investment. Not to mention that they both also attract a lot of immigrant talent (Chile more recently), whether skilled or unskilled. Due to our geography, both California and Chile have felt relatively isolated from the rest of their respective regions.

Some major differences: Chile lacks California's diversity, and California with 38 million (as opposed to Chile's 17 million) is much more heavily populated. Also, Chile just really has Santiago as a global city, California has San Francisco and Los Angeles - some could make an argument for San Diego. California's GDP is in the 2 TRILLIONS and Chile's, at around 268 billion, is 1/8th of that. As for culture, Chile just doesn't have the influence in Latin America that California has in the U.S./the world when it comes to music, media, film and television.

All in all, Chile is like California's younger brother/sister.

All in all in a good comparison in my opinion.

[PacoMartin]

I think a big factor will be change in population over the next 16 years. So Chile may have more in common with a state with somewhat slower growth.

Annual Rate of change 2000-2030 (US Census Bureau, only West Hemisphere countries over 1 million people)
1.57% Honduras
1.57% Guatemala
1.43% Bolivia
1.21% Ecuador
1.18% Panama
1.18% Venezuela
1.14% Paraguay
1.09% DominicanRepublic
1.07% CostaRica
1.00% Mexico
1.00% Haiti
0.97% Nicaragua
0.91% Colombia
0.85% Peru
0.79% Argentina
0.74% Brazil
0.71% UnitedStates
0.70% Chile
0.64% Jamaica
0.63% Canada
0.24% ElSalvador
0.22% Uruguay
-0.13% Cuba
-0.25% TrinidadandTobago
-0.32% PuertoRico


Annual Rate of change 2000-2030

2.57% .Nevada
2.48% .Arizona
1.97% .Florida
---
1.57% .Texas
1.49% .Utah
1.41% .Idaho
1.40% .North Carolina
1.29% .Georgia
1.28% .Washington
1.16% .Oregon
1.10% .Virginia
1.09% .Alaska
1.06% .California
1.00% .Colorado
0.96% .New Hampshire
0.94% .Maryland
0.87% .Tennessee
0.86% .Delaware
0.83% .South Carolina
0.83% .Minnesota
0.64% .Arkansas
0.64% .Hawaii
0.52% .Vermont
0.51% .New Jersey
0.49% .Montana
0.48% .New Mexico
0.46% .Missouri
0.46% .Wisconsin
0.42% .Oklahoma
0.40% .Kentucky
0.38% .Indiana
0.34% .Maine
0.33% .Massachusetts
0.32% .Rhode Island
0.31% .Alabama
0.30% .Kansas
0.28% .Mississippi
0.27% .Connecticut
0.26% .Illinois
0.24% .Michigan
0.24% .Louisiana
0.21% .Nebraska
0.20% .South Dakota
0.19% .Wyoming
0.13% .Pennsylvania
0.09% .New York
0.06% .Ohio
0.03% .Iowa
-0.17% .West Virginia
-0.19% .North Dakota
-0.92% .District of Columbia

Nevada, Arizona and Florida are growing at an extremely high rate