On January 6, 2011, Paul Krugman's "The Texas Omen" appeared in the online New York Times. In the article, Krugman notes that Texas's evident budget surplus, created by the biennial legislature in that state, is about to vanish. The economic downturn has finally hit the state, which has been touted as the model for balancing the budget by cutting spending.
Those who, like myself, have lived in Texas know that there is quite a bit to love about the state. There is a lot of room to move around in, and having a can of beer in a park on the Fourth of July is not a crime. There are a lot of interesting people in the state, there is a lot of history to learn, and there is much in the way of God-wrought beauty to gaze upon in mind-numbed wonder.
But there is also a dearth of service in the state. Much of what people elsewhere take for granted is simply not in place. Most workers have little if any protection from bosses; any complaint about working conditions can lead to firing, since Texas is an "at-will" state. In many instances, the people of the state--not all of them, but a lot of them--are closed-minded, unwilling to look outside themselves, clinging to overly-romanticized views of a past that never really existed. Comments about secession come to mind--as though Texas, with the number and size of the military bases all across the state (with their financial contributions to the state as well as the simple fact of firepower), could successfully break away.
Even this, though, won't change the minds of people there. Somehow, this will be blamed on the Democratic party, despite the fact that the Republican has controlled state government since Ann Richards left the governor's mansion (at which time there really WAS a budget surplus). With each Congressional redistricting, the hold of the party on the state's government grows stronger, even to the point that the state redistricts in off years.
I still say "God bless Texas," though. It needs all the help it can get.
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yeah, I'm conflicted about my home state too. I would love to one day move back there, and probably will if the opportunity presents itself. However, if that day comes, I will forever afterward regret my decision to voluntarily surround myself with the idiocy that abounds there. Not to say that there isn't idiocy where I currently reside, but the variety of it up here is one I can stomach with relative ease.
ReplyDeleteYou know those sob stories about a small town that's dying because all the youth move away due to the lack of real opportunity there? I feel that way about the entire South.
Oddly, the South is seeing population growth. Perhaps it is because of abstinence-only policies...
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