The only thing you are missing is commercial aviation and software.
Dell & Boeing.....Austin Texas is the Silicon Valley of the south I believe?
we have southwest airlines and continental... that’s all we need.
What we don’t need are all these out of state plates I’ve been seeing lately....friggin carpetbaggers.
Since we've got some of the best military aviation in the world, commercial represents an opportunity. We also make helicopters.
And yes, we've got our fair share of software. If necessary, I have no doubt we could do better than Apple and Microsoft.
Software? EDS, Texas Instruments, Perot Systems, Dell - with so many technology giants, surely somebody out there in Texas tinkers with software. No pure software companies of any size pop into my head at present.
Not that I am advocating independence, but there are few states so well diversified that it could easily transition to its own nation.
There are 58 of the Fortune 500 (113 Fortune 1000) companies based in Texas. Including such notables as ExxonMobil, Kimberly Clark, and AT&T not mentioned yet. New York is next with 55 and then California with 52.
As taxes go up in New York, California and other blue states, I expect to see more major corporate relocations to Texas. That number has grown steadily over the years. I guess they got tired of paying their "fair share" ;->
Ahem*
IBM Austin (Software Group) employs several hundred of us software weenies.