Texas and California: The Facts

Submitted by Ken Watts on Tue, 08/17/2010 - 11:53

THIS IS THE SEVENTH INSTALLMENT OF MY RESPONSE TO Chris which begins here .

Yesterday, Chris, I responded to your suggestion that we perform an experiment, to assess the relative practicality of liberal and conservative approaches to government.

You suggested that we...

...just try it with a two states first and see what happens. We get Texas and you can have California. I believe that will not put either at a disadvantage. We both have ports, natural resources and some of the same problems in which to deal.

I suggested that we could do just that in a moderate way by comparing the two states now.

You and I would both agree that California is significantly more liberal than Texas, which is significantly more conservative.

So they seem a fair test of how the two approaches work.

Here's how Texas and California compare at the moment:

 

Relatively
Conservative
Texas:		 Relatively
Liberal
California:
GDP (in billions): 1223.5 1846.8 Source
Per Capita Income
(Rank):		 23rd 11th Source
Per Capita Income
($):		 $38,575 $42,696 Source

Number of top
wealth holders:

 108 428 Source
Net Worth of top
wealth holders
(in millions):		 $492,663 $1,793,642 Source
% below poverty
level (individuals):		 16.3 12.4% Source
% below poverty
level (families):		 12.8% 9.3% Source
SAT Scores
(ranking):		 45th 34th Source
SAT Scores
(average score):		 1468 1511 Source
Overall Health
Ranking:		 39th 23rd Source


The information above is the first I came across on a quick search about state comparisons—I guarantee you that I didn't do any picking or choosing.

The source for all but the last three lines is the U.S. government census.

The information on SAT scores comes from a blog site, which claims to have assembled its data from the college board and other reputable sources—but since I didn't have the luxury of time to double-check that, I won't stand behind it 100%.

The health ranking comes from America's Health Rankings, and you can get a sense of who they are here.

The picture seems to be, on the whole, that California, the more liberal state, is doing better in all of the categories I checked.

California has a higher average income, richer rich people, fewer poor people, better educational results, and a healthier population.

My purpose isn't to embarrass you with a slam-dunk of data, and I hope you won't take it that way.

The point I am trying to make is broader.

Conservatives are very like liberals when it comes to basic values:

  1. Neither conservatives or liberals want anyone to suffer,
  2. Both conservatives and liberals want people to get the sense of independence and satisfaction that comes from standing on your own two feet and working hard,
  3. We both want the United States to prosper.

I also think that conservatives are just as intelligent as liberals, and vice versa.

But we live in different worlds.

Next: The Different Worlds of Conservatives and Liberals