GDP is a nebulous and meaningless measure of economic prowess.
Is the gameplay of a game of soccer in which two goals are scored necessarily a better game then a game with one goal scored? Of course not. GDP is like a score in soccer, at best a consequence of economic gameplay, not to be confounded with its cause.
Not everything that can be counted, can be counted on. Get your head out of the gutter of our flawed religions of economics, if you expect your reasoning not to be deprived of intrinsic value.
Real economic prowess is defined by the long and the strength of each state’s renewal, not by an artificial denomination of a rat-race for wealth. And a comparison between states using GDP is like comparing the final score in a game of soccer with a score in, say, field hockey. Like comparing apples and oranges.
Nebulous indeed.