My take on this is location, location, location plus size. Texas is pretty damn big. We're about 3-4 average states combined. So some regions of our state have very high unemployment (the Rio Grande Valley) but the urban areas are still thriving so overall our statewide rate is low. It's a mixed bag there. We're not doing what we need to do in the RGV but we can skate nationally by just using the state average. So companies and people are convinced that Texas is the future - the new, new west! Come to Texas and grab a piece of it now!
When the economy was booming (the fake risky financial market boom based on sub-prime lending) companies were expanding and home construction was up everywhere. One of the biggest engines of that boom was cheap labor. Since we're right on that border with Mexico we had those gates wide open. Republicans don't like to admit it and businesses won't admit it publicly, but that cheap Mexican labor built wide swaths of Texas real estate construction. And still maintain lawns for a huge chunk of it even today.
I don't think Texas is going to get stupid like
Arizona. Oh there will be talk about getting tough and the wing nuts will still try to blame immigrants for everything from polio to declining schools, but in Texas "bidness" is king. Truth be told "bidness" likes cheap labor, so those kinds of bills are going nowhere in the Lege. They're just a bunch of hot air for the rabid wing nut base.
On the home equity loan business. Yeah I like that - regulation continues to protect Texans from unscrupulous lenders. If it was up to the Rs and the business community it would have been a free for all. The good thing about Texas constitution is that kind of change requires approval by the voters of Texas. And voters aren't that keen in trusting bankers. :)
I do find a lot of comfort in the renewable energy engine to generate more job growth for Texas. We could still do better. We are losing green jobs to other states who are trying to get ahead of us are are in some cases. And it's not just wind energy we should cheer for. Solar energy should absolutely be a lynch pin of the south. We've been hotter than hell for decades now, why not get some economic benefit from it. The Rs in the Lege are being far too cautious and slow on moving forward on this front because they are still too beholden to the energy companies and big oil. The electric power companies want to keep generating power from cheap coal - damn our environment. And the state is doing little to factor in the "real cost" to the state of pollution costs. There are health care costs as well as environmental clean up costs that the state is just ignoring for the sake of "bidness".
It's great to have a new influx of people into the state from other areas of the country. Hopefully that will move us more toward blue. We're already purple and with Perry talking secessionist nonsense, it can only help to bring in more moderates.
My real concern is how badly we are ignoring our education system and how that time-bomb has been ticking for decades and Perry and his R controlled Lege is doing very little to fix it. They are purposefully keeping wages low for business. They aren't seeing the long term picture. Students in our public schools are already majority minority populace. In some urban districts 70% of elementary classes are minority students. And our drop out rate is at least 30% and maybe as high as 50%. Don't buy the bullshit Perry says about it being only 10%.
We're a very large state and the absolute worst thing to be is a large state that is uneducated, because that means your tax base is not going to support your needs. When two thirds of your citizens are only going to be making minimum wage, your state is is headed for a huge financial crisis.
:scared:
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(417 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
