Comment by guelo
16 years ago
Oh I see, you're turning this into some kind of pride thing. How about these Texas stats
Children without health insurance rank: 1
Air pollution rank: 1
Teen pregnancy rank: 1
Adults without a High School diploma rank: 1
Innocent people executed: 1 (that we know of)
Radical religious boards designing curriculums: 1
Citations needed -- the sources I find don't match all your rankings.
Also, I live in California, and used to live in Houston and Austin. I admire Texas in many but not all dimensions. My criticism of California's budget and economic mismanagement is driven by the hope the legislature can be shamed into improving -- or that a consensus for more radical structural reform can arise. Otherwise in another 20 years Texas will pass California, even by your chosen measures.
I live in Austin and don't agree with the bulk of the modern 'conservative' movement but living here I see stark differences in the way business is conducted compared with California. First, the local banks are /far/ more conservative with loans. There is no rush to jump on the next big thing and they do not hand out loans, sometimes even when thy are well deserved. It is pretty old school. You have to really prove what you say, and if they don't understand it, no way in hell are they loaning any money to it. Frustrating at times and in some ways short sighted, but you don't have everyone scrambling to make a quick buck (and the banks financing it all) either. IOW, the position Texas enjoys is only tangentially affected by the state gov't. 2nd -- I personally don't like Rick Perry and I was foaming at the mouth when he cut education funding but, tough as the cuts were there and in other places, Texas has a surplus. There is wiggle room. I have to grudgingly admire that kind of discipline. It is not like the Governor or Legislators did not catch a lot of flak for their policies the last 10 years.
Contrast that with California where my brother in law got to take 8 weeks paid paternity leave at least partly on the State's dime and you begin to see the difference.