Texas is the new California, but it won't last

[M II A II R II K]

TEXAS IS THE NEW CALIFORNIA, BUT IT WON'T LAST


June 1st, 2016

BY JOHNNY SANPHILLIPPO

Read More: http://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2...t-it-wont-last

There’s a lot of talk these days about how Texas is the new California. There’s a great deal of truth to this assertion. Just check the migration route of people and businesses leaving Los Angeles and the Bay Area for Houston, Dallas, and Austin. But you need to take that concept with a grain of salt. It’s a short-term phenomenon.

- What made California so great in the twentieth century? Land was abundant, cheap, and easily developed right near the ocean where people really wanted to be. Nature was always close at hand from the beach to the mountains. Productive farmland was created up and down the Central Valley with massive irrigation projects that made the desert bloom. --- California was a major oil and natural gas producer. Industry and innovation thrived as talented people poured in from across the country and around the world, each adding to the dynamism of the economy and culture.

- Massive government investments were made in horizontal infrastructure everywhere. Taxes were low. Regulations were light. Public education was first in the nation. The middle class expanded outward in every direction. --- Then… things changed. Drought pitted farmers against cities and industry against wildlife. Oil and gas production peaked and declined. The easily developed land in desirable places filled up. Traffic congestion increased. Pollution got out of hand. Prices rose dramatically.

- Conservatives love to blame pointed headed liberals and their tree-hugging tendencies for the decline. Liberals love to blame conservatives and their thinly veiled racism and greed. But it was absolutely a group effort with plenty of overlap. They weren’t mutually exclusive. Not In My Back Yard was the common cry from Tarzana to Palo Alto. Don’t tax me was the middle ground everyone coalesced around from Marin to Orange County. Don’t change the character of our community echoed from San Francisco to Costa Mesa. “I’ve got mine. You go get your own somewhere else.”

- Texas isn’t different. Texas is just a generation behind the curve. It’s on the same trajectory as California whether it knows it or not. There may be an endless amount of flat easily developed land in Texas, but the cost of maintaining an equally endless amount of horizontal infrastructure will inevitably outstrip tax revenue over the next generation. The Texas Department of Transportation is already hitting the wall in terms of revenue-to-expenditure. And there aren’t many municipalities that can actually afford to maintain their own water and sewer systems without state or federal assistance – and the higher ups are already broke and in debt.

- Texas may not take the California approach of mandating efficiency and imposing convoluted allocation schemes, but it may just end up letting places dry up and fail. Tick tock. --- Texas isn’t going to run out of fuel anytime soon. But it’s going to be a much dirtier, more expensive process than it used to be, with ever thinner margins. --- At a certain point, even Texas will have to start making hard choices about how to keep all the cars and air conditioners humming along in a low cost, low tax, low regulation environment.

.....

[ozone]

That article was in 2016. There is a lot of flaws in the simplistic argument since the two states are very different, and always have been. Regulation and taxes are not nearly as big of problem as lack of developable land, using the old, outdated post-WII models of economic expansion, has caused the cost of housing and business to increase exorbitantly. Even still, it is the positive economic growth that is exacerbating the problem. If California were to loosen regulation and lower taxes and allowed its remaining open lands to be developed it would only be a matter of time before we are back to same predicament. The problem will only be solved by rethinking (abandoning) the economic model which led us to where were are today. California is just beginning to do this. In some ways, California will have an advantage over Texas. Because it is more constrained by geography, California will be forced to do things differently.

[ILUVSAT]

Ha! A lot has changed since 2016!

[gasfreeCT]

it is the new california but without the red tape. i think it will continue to thrive the more companies move there.

[Arthur McAlister]

Originally Posted by gasfreeCT

it is the new california but without the red tape. i think it will continue to thrive the more companies move there.

Texans as well as other southeasterners would prefer that Californians resolve their issues there instead of carrying them to the southeast. They should continue their exodus to Oregon, Idaho, and Nevada.

[Rynetwo]

Texas ranks first in the nation in over-the-year jobs added, with 650,100 positions gained in 2022. According to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, the state not only had the largest absolute increase in jobs added, but also attained the highest percent of seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs added over the year at 5.0 percent. In comparison, United States’ job growth expanded by 3.0 percent.

“Texas continues to demonstrate it is an economic powerhouse with a world-class workforce and employers leading the nation in job growth,” said TWC Chairman Bryan Daniel. “These rankings follow 14 consecutive months of record-setting employment in Texas.”

"It will stop soon...

https://www.twc.texas.gov/news/texas...ed%20in%202022.

[sewaneetigers]

As long as it doesn't turn blue, it'll last.

"Texas is a generation behind the curve" - lol

[forward looking]

Texas is already on the verge of going blue, are you kidding me? Ted Cruz beat Beto O'Rourke only by a hairsbreadth in the race for his own senate seat.
Hell......Ryentwo this has been going on for as long as i have been alive- The Texas transplant. I would not bet against the "Texas miracle". Whenever the American economy crashes; the displaced- "head for Texas", where opportunity always abounds. I remember the recession in the eighties, during this time Texas was suffering badly. Office space over build of millions of square feet, oil prices dropped from $32.00 to sixteen dollars per bbl. Real estate values dropped steeply and still the yankees came to Texas because things were far, far worse in Detroit and the northeast. The Japanese were building far better cars for a cheaper price , Detroit went into an economic tailspin. This is about the time that Chrysler went bankrupt. Lots of displaced workers- all the way down the supply chains, also. Came to Texas.
Yes, Texas is a generation behind the curve, you are right. Socially backwards. A backwater place without culture. Yes, I am from Texas.
Totally.

Originally Posted by sewaneetigers

As long as it doesn't turn blue, it'll last.

"Texas is a generation behind the curve" - lol