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Please Don’t Secede, Texas—We Need You
The American Interest ^ | 02/13/2013 | Russell Mead

Posted on 02/12/2013 9:48:31 AM PST by SeekAndFind

The Lone Star state boasts all-star status when it comes to job creation and economic growth. Writing for City Journal, Wendell Cox brings us a great in-depth look at one of the healthiest state economies in the U.S. Texas job creation is well above the national average, with the number of jobs having grown 31.5 percent since 1995. Even more impressive, many of the new jobs were high-paying, coming from professional and technical fields. Cox explains why:

A pro-business climate has unquestionably been a substantial advantage. In its annual ranking of business environments, Chief Executive has named Texas the most growth-friendly state for eight years in a row. (California has been last for the same eight years.) The reasons included low taxes and sensible regulations; a high-quality workforce (Texas ranked second only to Utah in that category in 2012); and a pleasant living environment….

Part of the explanation for the high living-environment score is doubtless Texas’s low cost of living…. More than three-quarters of the cost-of-living difference between Texas and California can be explained by housing costs….

Read the whole thing. Cox makes well-supported points about why this particular state is doing so well.

Other states should be looking to Texas for inspiration. It’s no coincidence that Cox compares Texas and California so frequently in his article. California may still have the biggest economy, but at the moment Texas has all the momentum.

[Image courtesy of Shutterstock.com.]

More Coverage from Via Meadia:



TOPICS: Government; Society
KEYWORDS: secession; texas
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1 posted on 02/12/2013 9:48:40 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

My understanding is that Texas entered into this mutated Union as a Sovereign Republic (a free ‘country’). If they want to secede from a “freely entered” union, they should be completely free to leave it. I wish more states would consider the same. This union is no more.


2 posted on 02/12/2013 9:50:44 AM PST by Gaffer
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To: SeekAndFind

Some wit suggested that were Texas to secede, their first act should be to make communism, socialism, and the Democrat party unlawful.


3 posted on 02/12/2013 9:52:13 AM PST by yefragetuwrabrumuy (Best WoT news at rantburg.com)
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To: Spktyr

Texas ping! Thought you might like this article.


4 posted on 02/12/2013 9:52:34 AM PST by yorkiemom
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To: SeekAndFind

Secede the northeastern states and the west coast, instead. ;-)


5 posted on 02/12/2013 9:54:55 AM PST by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of rotten politics smelled around the planet.)
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To: SeekAndFind

This is exactly the reason that Texas needs to secede. Hopefully, a few other conservative states will join it.


6 posted on 02/12/2013 9:56:10 AM PST by kosciusko51 (Enough of "Who is John Galt?" Who is Patrick Henry?)
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To: familyop
Secede the northeastern states and the west coast, instead. ;-)

Till they starve to death, then reclaim it.
7 posted on 02/12/2013 9:57:00 AM PST by ZX12R
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To: SeekAndFind
It spends far less than California on education but ranks significantly higher. And California business leaders are growing more frustrated by the day, as Sacramento seems determined to squeeze them for ever more revenue.

I've noticed the former myself. I don't know about the entire state, but when I got my teaching certificate in Texas and was looking at local jobs, there were NO penions. A wonderful thing! Not only did that save the tax payers money, BUT I also think it helps with the quality of teachers. Seems contradictory, but here's how I see it: a pension system holds teachers into that position, whether they are good or bad at it. Without one, teachers who don't like the work feel free to leave and find something they do enjoy. And the job can be a labor of love, not just a source of money. I know CA has a ton of awful teachers who are working for nothing more than getting that huge pension. At the taxpayer's expense, of course!
8 posted on 02/12/2013 9:57:44 AM PST by yorkiemom
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To: kosciusko51
This is exactly the reason that Texas needs to secede. Hopefully, a few other conservative states will join it.

I figure the middle of the country (vertically) will be the nation that secedes. From Texas to North Dakota is usually solidly red in elections.
9 posted on 02/12/2013 10:00:21 AM PST by yorkiemom
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To: Gaffer

Texas has 3.2 million on Medicare and 4.5 million on Medicaid.
I doubt they’ll be seceding anytime soon.


10 posted on 02/12/2013 10:02:39 AM PST by nascarnation (Baraq's economic policy: trickle up poverty)
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To: Gaffer

“My understanding is that Texas entered into this mutated Union as a Sovereign Republic (a free ‘country’).”

I’m only aware of 2 states that entered the union as sovereign Republics - Texas and California.


11 posted on 02/12/2013 10:03:04 AM PST by Owl558 ("Those who remember George Satayana are doomed to repeat him")
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To: Gaffer

>>My understanding is that Texas entered into this mutated Union as a Sovereign Republic (a free ‘country’). If they want to secede from a “freely entered” union, they should be completely free to leave it. <<

That is urban myth. Upon statehood any territory becomes the same as any other state. The War of Northern Aggression cemented that relationship.


12 posted on 02/12/2013 10:05:40 AM PST by freedumb2003 (I learned everything I needed to know about racism from Colin Powell)
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To: Gaffer

Never understood this notion that a union needs to be perpetual. What for? Because it feels good to know that?

Just look at how much Europe changed over the past 800 years. Nations like Milan, Prussia, Argon, Wales, Yugoslavia, and the Kalmar Union no longer exist and the world got along just fine. One day Scotland, Venice, and Catalonia will be independent nations and the world still wont implode.

Hell, no one said N. America would become a battleground just because there are several new nations here. What would be the point of that?


13 posted on 02/12/2013 10:07:57 AM PST by VanDeKoik
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To: yorkiemom
It spends far less than California on education but ranks significantly higher.

Actually California spends a lot more on the education system. I doubt that they spend as much on real education.

14 posted on 02/12/2013 10:07:57 AM PST by KarlInOhio (Choose one: the yellow and black flag of the Tea Party or the white flag of the Republican Party.)
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To: SeekAndFind

Texas is not going anywhere. It will go blue before seceeding. This national push to flood it with California commie refugees and a few more illegals will guarantee it.


15 posted on 02/12/2013 10:16:37 AM PST by Axamari
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To: freedumb2003
That is urban myth. Upon statehood any territory becomes the same as any other state.

That kind of assumes that Texas is looking for anybody's permission to secede.

16 posted on 02/12/2013 10:17:17 AM PST by humblegunner
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To: yefragetuwrabrumuy

Not at all a bad idea.

Perhaps Boehner and his pals might want to take that up.

After they grow a pair, that is.


17 posted on 02/12/2013 10:19:58 AM PST by Howie66 (Molon Labe, Traitors!)
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To: kosciusko51

How about this for an idea?

Tell California, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois and a few other states that they are no longer needed or wanted to remain as states?

That from this point on, they are on their own.


18 posted on 02/12/2013 10:22:37 AM PST by Howie66 (Molon Labe, Traitors!)
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To: humblegunner

>>That kind of assumes that Texas is looking for anybody’s permission to secede. <<

When it comes down to it I, as a new Texan, will stand with my Texas brethren against the progressive obama states of liberalism.


19 posted on 02/12/2013 10:23:13 AM PST by freedumb2003 (I learned everything I needed to know about racism from Colin Powell)
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To: kosciusko51
It's Time to Part Company
20 posted on 02/12/2013 10:23:13 AM PST by B.O. Plenty (Give war a chance........)
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