Many Californians who are close to me have heard me query this; " If the last 50 years were the 'California half-century', will the next 50 years be known as the 'Texas-half century?' "  I've had this conversation with Texas-phile Jeff Brown, mortgage partner Sean Purcell, and Texas buddy and money manager Nick Ripostella.

My thoughts:

1- While I warned that Texas' property taxes were a reason not to invest there, it appears that California's "buy now, pay later" approach (Proposition 13) is broken. 

2- California's march to socialism is an experiment gone awry.  If left unchecked, it will penalize the net producers in favor of the net consumers.  That penalty will drive producers to a state like...well, Texas.  Sean Purcell's argument was that the creative genius in California (ie- the Hollywood types) are decidedly liberal and would never leave.  My counter to that argument was that those creative types are still capitalists at heart, despite what they portray to the public.

3- Texas is more business-friendly and hell bent on a constructive immigration policy that continues the American tradition of new immigrants pushing the whole economy upwards instead of the California model of vote-buying through appeasement.  Texas' focus is on assimilation while California's is on victimization. 

4- While I believe Texas is advantaged today, California leads the nation and arguably the world in intellectual capital and innovation.  We thrive in spite of the actions of our obstructionist Legislature.  This (admittedly "homer") idea maintains my belief that California will eventually prevail.

A VERY respectable periodical agrees with me.  Continue reading