Texas vs California

[DBoon]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-texas-budget-20110207,0,4154023.story

Some interesting quotes:

Texas lags far behind California in major research universities, patents produced, high-tech infrastructure and venture capital investment, according to the Missouri-based Kauffman Foundation. The foundation's 2010 ranking of states in "movement toward a global, innovation-based new economy" put California at No. 7. Texas was No. 18.

"Their model is a low-wage economy with greater income inequality," said John Ellwood, a professor of public policy at UC Berkeley. "For all the talk of Texas being a high-tech state, they have never really caught up to California.… Look at the big new growth companies. Where is Facebook? Where is Google? Are any of these companies in Austin? No."

Even Perry's claims of companies that have decamped from California to lay down roots in Texas appear to be overblown. When the Austin American-Statesman looked into the Texas governor's boast that there were 153 such companies in 2010, reporters found the claim included California firms that stayed put but maybe opened a Texas branch. The newspaper concluded that Perry's figure was grossly inflated.

My argument is that if low costs, low wages, and low regulation are so good for business then why do people like Perry have to "hunt" California for relocation prospects? If their policies are so great, their states should just be overflowing with home-grown entrepreneurial wonders.

[byronius]

1. Axiomatic that the Best and Brightest do not prefer to hang around

with a large population of well-armed, illiterate ex-felons who thing potsmokers should be tortured and killed.

California is the place you want to be.

I did my time in Texas. Never going back. Fucking dangerous place.

[Auggie]

2. Well, Texas does have more blowhards

I'll give them that

:)