Someone on my nephew's...

...Facebook page commented recently that Chicago is "dragging the rest of Illinois into the abyss."

And I thought, really? Isn't Chicago the economic engine that pulls the state of Illinois? After all, the city accounts for about three-fourths of all the state's GDP.*

Without the city of Chicago, Illinois would be just another economic backwater like its neighbors, Indiana, Iowa and Wisconsin. 

* That three-quarters figure may actually be a little low as the statistic for the city is from 2012 while that state number is from 2015.