Is Texas the Greatest State in the Nation?
According to many sources, Texas remains the place to be in 2022. Texas’ main economy relies on information technology, oil, natural gas, aerospace, defense, biomedical research, fuel processing, agriculture, energy production and manufacturing, to name just a few.
According to businesstexas.com, if Texas was a country, it would have the 9th largest economy in the world. Texas would rank higher than Russia, Australia, Spain and Mexico. Texas has the second highest work force in the nation, which has been attracting more and more companies to move to Texas. Samsung announced plans to build a second semiconductor chip manufacturing plant near Austin, which represents a $7-billion-dollar investment, and Tesla will soon begin production of vehicles at their new Texas plant in 2022. These are just two examples of the many major corporations that have moved to Texas to take advantage of the large workforce that resides in Texas. Among other reasons companies are moving to Texas are; Texas’s combined corporate tax rate of 21%, one of the lowest tax rates in the United States, the location of Texas being centered in the middle of the United States, international ports and airports, affordability for single-family homes near major metro areas and corporate rent is nearly half of what companies would pay in locations like Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., and a third of New York City.
Texas’ export trade is up 34% in 2021. Texas rides high on a 20-year streak as the nation’s number one export-producer. The rest of the nation averages about 23% on exports, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis [BEA]. The Lone Star State ended 2021 with a second consecutive month of record-setting employment at more than 13 million jobs and an unemployment rate of 5%, the Texas Workforce Commission has reported. Texas startups attracted $10.55 billion in venture capital last year.
Some reasons why people are moving to Texas are: no state income tax, saving 4 to 12 percent of your income annually. Great schools, low home prices, with the median price of a single-family home in the Houston area being $273,443. In comparison, those living in Boston face a median home value of $645,689, and on the west coast, the median home price for a home in San Francisco is $1,436,087, according to empirecommunities.com, which also agreed about Texas’ warmer climate, “Texans typically enjoy seasonal temperatures yearround, and if cooler winter weather does hit the state, it never lasts for long. Even in Dallas-Fort Worth, the most northern major market in Texas, the average high in January is 55 degrees. In Austin and Houston, the average high in January is 61 degrees, meaning that a Christmas spent in your shorts is very possible.” Lastly, and most certainly not the least, Texas has some of the friendliest people in the nation.
According to the U.S. Census data, almost 700,000 Californians have moved to Texas since 2010, prompting many Texans to say don’t California My Texas, including a campaign motto by Texas Governor Greg Abbott claiming “Don’t California My Texas!” Mostly meaning California’s high tax rates, high cost of living and their liberal and socialist ideals that many have been saying is the downfall and decline of the once popular location known as the Sunshine State.
According to thehill.com, “California’s adoption of far-left ideology, and the devastating toll it has wrought on the Golden State, should serve as a canary in the coal mine for any state wishing to follow California’s example. In California, the renewable movement, which is front and center in the Green New Deal, has caused massive problems. Energy prices are skyrocketing.” According to a recent report by the Center for Jobs and the Economy at the California Business Roundtable, “These outcomes mean that even as many households struggle under the current economic conditions, the state’s energy policies continue to take an increasing share of household incomes both directly in gasoline and utility bills and indirectly as these costs are incorporated into the prices of every other component of the costs of living.”
As the rest of the nation continues to look towards Texas’s many successes as a state, Texans will continue to enjoy living in one of the top states in the nation and quite possibly one of the last places where Americans can truly be free.
REFERENCES
https://www.wctrib.com/opinion/ columns/everett-kelley-commentary-nation-must-protect-voting-rights, https://www.businessinsider.com/oecd-tax-revenue-to-gdp-2012-12,
https://businessintexas.com/news/texas-reaches-record-employment-of-more...,
https://www.empirecommunities.com/blog/7-reasons-people-moving-to-texas/,
https://thehill.com/opinion/finance/517105-californias-embrace-of-social...