My point is that CA is way ahead of TX when it comes to the portion of its economy that is cutting edge and doesn't come out of the ground. That may eventually change, but we're not there yet. CA wasn't always ahead of TX. As recently as 1930, TX had a bigger population than CA. TX's vs CA's population history:
| Historical population | |||
| Census | TX | CA | TX/CA |
| 1850 | 212,592 | 92,597 | 230% |
| 1860 | 604,215 | 379,994 | 159% |
| 1870 | 818,579 | 560,247 | 146% |
| 1880 | 1,591,749 | 864,694 | 184% |
| 1890 | 2,235,527 | 1,213,398 | 184% |
| 1900 | 3,048,710 | 1,485,053 | 205% |
| 1910 | 3,896,542 | 2,377,549 | 164% |
| 1920 | 4,663,228 | 3,426,861 | 136% |
| 1930 | 5,824,715 | 5,677,251 | 103% |
| 1940 | 6,414,824 | 6,907,387 | 93% |
| 1950 | 7,711,194 | 10,586,223 | 73% |
| 1960 | 9,579,677 | 15,717,204 | 61% |
| 1970 | 11,196,730 | 19,953,134 | 56% |
| 1980 | 14,229,191 | 23,667,902 | 60% |
| 1990 | 16,986,510 | 29,760,021 | 57% |
| 2000 | 20,851,820 | 33,871,648 | 62% |
| 2010 | 25,145,561 | 37,253,956 | 67% |
| Est. 2013 | 26,448,193 | 38,340,000 | 69% |
If I had to guess, I'd say that rise of Hollywood brought large numbers of people to CA to find all those places they had only seen in the movie house. The Dust Bowl brought large numbers of Okies to CA. WWII accentuated this move as GI's coming home from the Pacific Theater decided they liked CA's perennial sunshine and moderate climate more than the weather extremes of their home states.
I still don’t get your point, what was your point about population, and “cutting edge” Toyota isn’t “cutting edge” for example.
Texas is a different state, it doesn’t need to ‘beat’ California in every category, California is well located for Pacific trade, and did see a boom from the dust bowl and WII days, and I personally met people moving during the 1960s, to California, for the great welfare, but there are reasons that it has lost millions of native Americans fleeing what is becoming a two tier rich and poor, and oppressive state.
It appears to me that Texas is on a stronger foundation than California, not some temporary oil boom.
I guess the fact that California has a cost of living average that is in the stratosphere compared to Texas and many other states for that matter...
California is a fantastic place to visit, the weather is absolutely pleasant most of the year, and there are many things to see and experience there, I know, being stationed there for 5 years was a big selling point to me...
But to live there???
Not even on a dare...