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>But that's just market cap, which isn't comparable in any way to GDP.

If the units are correct and the same, then the comparison makes itself. The distance between two cities and how far an electric car can go on one charge are vastly different things, but since both can be measured in the same units, the comparison makes itself.

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The units aren't the same. The shorthand for the units is the same.

A dollar of market cap is very different from a dollar of GDP, like a cubic meter of lead is different from a cubic meter of air.

What we're talking about is the value (or weight); the denomination (or volume) is irrelevant.

The value of a dollar GDP is considerably more tangible than a dollar market cap.

In particular: The unit of GDP is in fact dollars/year (even if people rarely bother reporting the precise unit), whereas market cap is just dollars. They're as incomparable as velocity and position.

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