.
yeah, i know all three of you can't wait for my promised post-mortem of the dead-on-arrival california proposition 23--but while i'm putting it together, take a look at the following chart:
and now for the only statistic that really matters these days: while california has been hemorrhaging jobs for the last 10 years, texas has been creating 'em literally by the hundreds of thousands.
as you ponder the above--and as preface to my prop 23 post--you might wanna ask yourself a couple questions:
(1) why is it that the most highly-taxed and/or unionized states are generally also the ones that have the highest unemployment and/or are the most broke?
and more particularly to the topic at hand,
(2) what's more important in the overall scheme of things: further impoverishing an already-bankrupt state for the strictly symbolic cause of "saving the planet", or preserving what little industry and technology said state state still possesses in order to provide employment for its remaining productive citizens?
california, in its wisdom, just made its choice. tell me, what do you think?
4 comments:
Let's take a look at some really important other statistics:
Cigarette taxes:
CA 87 cents per pack
TX $1.41 per pack
Infant mortality rate
CA (3rd lowest state)
TX (19th lowest state)
Percentage of adults with college degree:
CA 29.6 (14th ranking)
TX 25.3 (30th ranking)
Percentage of persons below poverty line
CA 13.3 (29th lowest)
TX 15.8 (42nd lowest)
There are a lot of statistics out there. Is the Texas economy doing better right now than California's? Yes. A big part of that is $90 per barrel oil.
Is Texas a great place to live? If you live in the Dallas suburbs (like GWB) or the Houston suburbs (like GHWB) and socialize with all of your very white friends, I imagine Texas would be a great place to live. Otherwise, not so much.
California is at least trying to provide some security and opportunities to the least well off.
For the life of me, you take for granted your privileges and just expect everyone to be as capable as you are.
noblesavage: seriously, cigarette taxes and infant mortality rates? that's the best comeback you can muster?
silly question--of course it is. texas is a classic case of limited government encouraging economic growth, and california is just the opposite. and the results speak for themselves.
oil revenue? california could drastically increase its oil revenue. oh, wait--no, not in our pristine backyard (we just wanna consume massive amounts of oil, not produce it).
and please don't presume to lecture me about the quality of life in a state in which i grew up, and about which you know nothing. trust me--after 20 years in a steadily-deteriorating california, texas is looking better and better.
and finally, the kind of institutionalized welfare that gives you liberals such a hard-on doesn't "help" anybody, rob; on the contrary, it pretty much indentures 'em to a life of childlike dependence on the government, a legacy they'll pass on to their children and their children's children. i mean, jesus, didn't the learned helplessness of the "beneficiaries" of johnson's great society teach you anything?
oh, wait--another silly question.
Texas is not a state I would live in. I would be much better off in Texas, but the low tax, low services ethos of Texas has such a strong racial undercurrent, it's hard to see in neutral terms.
Does trickle down economics help the poor? All the longitudinal studies that have looked at the American economy since 1981 (Reagan's tax cuts) have found that tax cuts did not benefit the bottom 40 percent of the population at all. These are facts.
Welfare "reform" has done real harm to some people.
The University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research has done the best longitudinal study on poverty in America. It found that most poor people are poor for temporary periods of time. The most common causes of poverty were medical bills and/or health problems and divorce. Most (80 percent) who were poor in one year were lifted out of poverty five years later.
There is a chronic group of poor, yes, but that is a smaller minority of the persons who receive welfare benefits. Welfare benefits for most people are a temporary lifeline for many people.
But Guttermorality is more interested in moralizing and denigrating that examining facts.
It would be helpful is you actually had facts to back up that
Texas was such a wonderful place for all its citizens.
It's over folks. This state and country are broke. Prepare for the worst.
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