California’s antipode is Texas.
When California hikes taxes; Texas reduces spending.
California deindustrializes, then disingenuously crows about per capita energy use reductions as if unemployment or offshoring were a good thing; manufacturing actually makes up a bigger share of Texas’ economy today than it did 10 years ago.
California pays its teachers extremely well; but national standardized test scores show Texas does a far better job at educating children across a diverse racial and ethnic spectrum.
On paper, California’s official poverty rate is a couple of points lower than Texas’; but Texas, with a cost-of-living 42 percent cheaper than California’s and a far-lower unemployment rate, has a cost-of-living adjusted poverty rate 7 percent lower than California’s (paying less for food, rent, and transportation matters a lot when you’re struggling to make ends meet).
Once a portent of things to come, California threatens to be a harbinger of national doom — clearly warning the nation of the danger of an overbearing government.
By contrast, prudent Texas shows the way to a once-and-future America — an America that values hard work and rewards investment and where government’s role is limited to securing liberty.
Chuck DeVore is Vice President for Communications at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. He served in the California State Assembly from 2004 to 2010, was an aerospace executive, worked as a Reagan White House appointee in the Pentagon, and is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army (retired) Reserve.
