Texas added 60% of US jobs for past five years:
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What's fascinating about all of this economic and job domination is that liberals, progressives, socialists, Democrats, the establishment media, and other members of the left only rarely acknowledge Texas' economic prowess, and even then only with what they believe to be crippling caveats [such as: " Texas took a bunch of stimulus money!" when in fact Texas is actually a net donor state and received the second lowest stimulus funds per capita of all the states] [or: " it's all just government jobs!" when in reality, Texas' job domination is even more impressive than the overall number, when you isolate private-sector job gains or look at private sector wage growth. Moreover, Texas has actually shed government jobs over the past couple of years.] .........
A few things about Texas, @steveolson: first, its 2011 cost-of-living adjusted per capita income is $43,895. California's is $33,703. .....
[ Yes, that lower cost of living makes a difference. Helps when you don't have to pay an extra $300K for a house. ]
Second, @steveolson, Texas's real per capita income growth 2000-2011 was 6.03%. California's was 1.65%. ... Third, @steveolson, net domestic in-migration to Texas 2000-2011 was 3.75% of its 2000 population. California's: -5.8%. Yeah, a negative %. ...... Fourth, @steveolson, AFTER TAX, Texas's 2011 cost-of-living adjusted per capita income is $40,055. California's is $29,691 ......... Fifth, @steveolson, cost-of-living adjusted per pupil ADA spending in Texas is $12,676. In California, it's $8.346. ...... Sixth, @steveolson, as of fall 2009, the K-12 student-teacher ratio in Texas was 14.5:1. In California, it was 21.4:1.
.... Seventh, @steveolson, the average price of gas in Texas on June 5th was $3.37. In oil-rich California, it was $4.18. .........
Eighth, @steveolson, Texas has no cities in the top 20 in the US with the worst air pollution of 2011. California has five.
......... Ninth, @steveolson, Texas has no cities in the top 25 with the worst violent-crime rate in 2011. California has two. .......... In conclusion, @steveolson, you're welcome here in more affordable, safer, cleaner, better-educated Texas any time ......... 500 CEOs surveyed by CEO Magazine have rated TX the top state to do business seven years in a row! CA? #50. @jstrevino @steveolson #tcot ......... Tomorrow, a one-way rental from U-Haul (14 ft) will cost $1,346 SF to Austin. Austin to SF? $627? Guess why? @jstrevino @steveolson #tcot ............ There's this: 8 TX cities among 15 fastest-growing in US. 5 of top 6. bit.ly/LQCtbz (via @TexasOne) ........... ... you should have stuck with climate and scenery arguments, because California will win those. The ones you rehashed from the left's dozen-year-old (at least) anti-Texas playbook just don't stand up to any sort of serious scrutiny. .......... The data show that, in the decade from 2002 to 2012, the Texas population went from 21,779,893 to 26,403,743 – a 21% increase – and the number of Texas physicians rose by 15,611 – a 44% increase. This absolute change led to an increase of 30 physicians per 100,000 population (19% increase).
Not important? Or just inconvenient to the left's narrative?
.......... If you draw a triangle whose points are Houston, Dallas and San Antonio, enclosing Austin, you've just drawn a map of the economic and jobs engine of North America.
Texas prospers not just because of oil and gas, but thanks to a diversified and sophisticated economy. It has attracted large numbers of both immigrants and domestic migrants for a quarter century. One in 12 Americans lives there.
America is getting to look a lot more like Texas, and that's one trend that I hope continues.
.............. While it's true that Texas is way too hot for about 6-- okay, 7-- months out of the year, and we don't really have mountains (for skiing, at least), Texas' education system is actually demonstrably superior to California's or Wisconsin's or the nation's as a whole, a fact that simply doesn't fit the left's narrative (again, this topic is worthy of a comprehensive post of its own).
willisms.com
Moreover, on criminal justice, Texas is leading the way on reducing both violent and property crimes: Nationally, the property crime rate fell 0.8 percent in 2011, but in Texas the drop was about 10 times as great, falling 8.3 percent. FBI statistics released by the Texas Department of Public Safety also show that Texas’ violent crime rate fell 9.3 percent, compared to a 4.0 percent drop nationally.
Texas' slightly libertarian brand of conservatism truly is proving that ideas matter, and good policy ideas will produce good outcomes. Oh, hey, and look, Texas sales tax revenues just keep unexpectedly outpacing estimates (up 15.2% for the latest month, the 27th straight month of gains).
.......... And as folks move to Texas from other states in droves, the Lone Star State has one of the nation's lowest mortgage foreclosure rates and ranks among the lowest in the nation for seriously delinquent mortgages (and by far the absolute best among large states). Due to the diverse economic opportunity found in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, San Antonio, and elsewhere, Texas is also America's number one destination for foreign refugees from countries like Burma, Bhutan, and Iraq.
Former Libertarian Party Vice Presidential nominee Wayne Allyn Root adds:
Texas has zero state income tax, zero capital gains taxes, and zero death taxes. It is a “right to work” state where employees may choose to join a union, but are never forced to. It is pro business and anti-lawyer (discouraging class action lawsuits and the first state to pass a “Loser Pays” law). Texas is also tight-fisted with welfare and entitlement benefits- unlike New York and California. The result of this limited government attitude is people with high incomes, assets, and ambition are moving into Texas, while those who lack work ethic, and feel entitled to handouts are moving out. Good riddance. But the most important attribute of Texas is that its constitution limits the time that politicians can meet. The Texas Legislature is limited to meeting only 4 months every other year. That pretty much explains everything. Texas and my state of Nevada have no state income taxes and the fastest growing populations in America…not in spite of, but because the politicians aren't allowed to sit in their seats all year long thinking of new ways to re-distribute income, impede business, and destroy jobs.
Let’s look at the remarkable results of favoring hard working job-creators over entitlement addicts, and business owners over lawyers. Texas now has more Fortune 500 headquarters than New York. It tied for the highest state economic growth in America over the past 50 years, while displacing New York as the second largest state economy. The annual Texas economy has passed $1 trillion, accounting for 8.3% of the entire U.S. economy. In the last three years one third of all jobs in America were created in Texas, and in the past decade, more jobs were created in Texas than in the other 49 states COMBINED.
........... Ideas matter. It's time to stop pretending like there is some mystery to growing the economy. It's pretty obvious what we need to do and not do. While it's debatable whether every single minor facet of the Texas model is transferable to the rest of the nation, the big stuff (tax policy, debt, spending, budgeting, etc.) is absolutely something Washington could and should emulate.
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