Rick Perry’s Texas jobs boom: The whole story
13th August 2011
Now that Perry is officially a candidate, it’s time for the media hit-pieces to begin. CNN, as befits its seniority as a Voice of the Crust, gets to lead off.
But that doesn’t mean that all is well with employment in the Lone Star State. Texas leads the nation in minimum-wage jobs, and many positions don’t offer health benefits. Also, steep budget cuts are expected to result in the loss of more than 100,000 jobs.
Perhaps most importantly, Texas can’t create jobs fast enough to keep up with its rapidly growing population. Since 2007, the state’s number of working-age residents expanded by 6.6%, nearly twice the national average.
Translation: Well, they may have a lot of growth, but it’s still not enough, so there.
Of course, Texas enjoys advantages that have nothing to do with having Perry at the helm. Rich in natural resources, the state has been benefiting from the high price of oil and the expanded interest in natural gas exploration. Energy employment has soared by 16.8% over the past year alone.
Translation: Well, they may be in good shape, but they’re just lucky, it doesn’t have anything to do with Perry, so there.
Uh, guys, having the government keep its hands off is far from ‘nothing’. Both Perry and Obama inherited an economy from George W Bush. Obama put his in the toilet by dicking around with it; Perry left it alone, and it’s leading the nation. ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’
“We have created jobs, but they are not jobs with good wages and benefits,” said F. Scott McCown, executive director, Center for Public Policy Priorities, which advocates for low-income residents.
So it’s not enough to make more jobs, they have to be ‘good’ jobs, according to some ‘progressive’ standard that is never articulated but which Democrats achieve while destroying economic growth but Republicans can’t seem to reach no matter how many people they put to work. I see.
August 13th, 2011 at 08:43
When McDonalds got an Obamacare waiver and then announced they were filling 50,000 (literally “burger-flipping) new positions, Obama was quite happy to tack these onto the total of jobs created that he could take credit for.
August 13th, 2011 at 10:38
Texas, the Last Bastion of the Capitalist Wet Dream.
You want jobs? We got jobs! You can be a dishwasher, burger flipper, maid, trash hauler, yard worker, oil changer–hey, the sky’s the limit! All you need is a strong back, willingness to work unGodly hours, and a keen sense of desperation.
And none of these jobs pay enough to allow the scut-workers to aspire to moving up to the ranks of the elite, white, high-wage folks. Keep the hoi poloi in their place; that’s how we do things ’round here, by God.
As an aside, why do you wonder that illegals are flooding to Texas? Even at $2.00/hr, they’re making four times what they could make in Sonata or Salinas…and since they’re already aclimated to living in crowded squalor, they’re perfectly happy living 20 to a room and eating nothing but tortillas.
God Bless America, Land of Opportunity!
August 13th, 2011 at 12:46
I think it was Andrew Mellon of the Coolidge administration that said, “It is not high wages that make a good economy. It is a good economy that makes high wages.”
August 13th, 2011 at 22:05
And it was Thomas Marshall of the Wilson administration who said, “What this country needs is a really good 5-cent cigar.” Pithy sayings do not an economic policy make.
August 14th, 2011 at 01:39
When people comment about Texas who don’t have a clue about Texas, it takes on the written equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard. Yes, Dennis, I’m talking about you.
I have a neighbor that moved here from Mexico. He owns a couple of businesses and he works 6 days a week trying to run them. His family lives here because someone tried to kidnap his teenage daughter back in Mexico. You’d probably be shocked to find out that most of the Mexicans who move here do so in order to build a better life for their kids. It’s pretty rare for them to live “20 to a room”. Hispanics own a lot of businesses and are responsible for a sizable number of new businesses.
As for “squalor”, there is no part of Houston that comes close to being as nasty as the bad parts of your Rust-Belt cities.
Dennis, your view of Texas (probably the South) as a white aristocracy with dark-skinned slaves is not just wrong but stupid.
As for the economy of Texas, we are still (unfortunately) part of the USA and subject to the idiocracy of Washington. No refineries have been built here for nearly 30 years because it’s too hard to comply with federal laws. Just to add a lousy storm drain to a refinery (under 40CFR60 subpart QQQ) could cost tens of millions. Better to issue boots and deal with backed up water than to hire a contractor – paying decent wages – to install a drain. Exxon projects that the Greenhouse Gas regulations will cost them as much per year as the largest annual profit they ever made. With the federal government leeching off of them, no company is anxious to add personnel.
Finally, Dennis, your response to Whitehawk was completely out of context and insulting. Pull your head out of your copy of Das Kapital and take a look at the real world. You may be surprised to find out how little it resembles the propaganda in your Progressive Book of Limited Thought.
August 14th, 2011 at 11:10
Your remarks, though insulting and condescending, are sadly not relevant.
“When people comment about Texas who don’t have a clue about Texas, it takes on the written equivalent of fingernails on a chalkboard.” When people such as yourself make blanket statements concerning Liberals and Progressives without actually knowing what they are talking about, it is the equivalent of “enhanced interrogation techniques” to my gonads. But you don’t hear me complaining. Suck it up, cupcake.
If the Mexicans in Texas are such hard-working, entrepreneurial fellows, why are you so dead-set on not allowing them in? It’s not me saying, “Close the border! Close it now!!”
And all that about the refineries may be interesting, but I’m quite sure all the Jobs-A-Hoppin’ happening in Lone Staria aren’t associated with Exxon, hence the item in question is moot. Nice try, but it won’t fly.
I must ask, have you ever been to the “rust-belt cities” you so dismissively speak about? I have been to Texas, and no matter how “rusty” my city may be, we don’t have regular road-rage shootouts on the expressways. And last I looked, Houston was right up there in the per-capita violent crime rate. So don’t tout the wonders of Texas to me, my friend. I’ve seen it, and I wasn’t impressed.
So pull your head out of your–uh, Book of Libertarian Entitlement. I can trade you blanket overgeneralizations and mischaracterizations all day. Doesn’t make you right, just makes you dogmatic.
August 14th, 2011 at 22:58
“And it was Thomas Marshall of the Wilson administration who said, “What this country needs is a really good 5-cent cigar.” Pithy sayings do not an economic policy make.”
You make no sense and you refuse to see common sense.
BTW CORRECTION: It was not Andrew Mellon it was Albert Wiggin of the Chase Bank during the Hoover administration and the verbatum quote was: “It is not true that high wages make for prosperity. Instead, prosperity makes for high wages.” (The Forgotten Man p 94)
Sometimes the truth sounds pithy Dennis.
August 15th, 2011 at 09:58
Sometimes pithy is true, and sometimes it’s just facile, complacent, and a handy substitute for substance.
You’re spot on: I refuse to see your common sense because you have failed to convince me that your position is either common or sensical. The ball’s in your court, and you’ve dropped it.
You might try reasoning by logic, if you can, instead of tossing out bromides which make you feel profound and erudite but which shed little light on the discussion.