Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
So, sure, the U.S. wasn't any better than any other country when it exercised its Manifest Destiny on y'all. Now, you're known for your space launching pads, a few quarts of WD-40 and the team that quite regularly whomps the behinds of the Washington Redskins (appropos, that). But it could've been worse: You could've ended up as the biggest casino in the northern hemisphere.
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Not with all the Southern Baptists around here. Besides look at all the money Nevada made on casinos before the rest of the US got in on the act and cut the margins....
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
It's impossible to say whether Texas would have been better off as independent or sovereign... that day is past, that ship has sailed. And now we all have to pitch together to build brand new ships, before we all get swamped. Dwelling on the past only serves to delay things and get our ankles wet.
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Swamped? Ankles wet? This is Texas, if you've got water, hang on to it!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
So, how's about we just say, "The past is past," shake hands like men, and get back to work, eh? Shoulder-to-shoulder, all hands on deck, remember the Alamo, and all that? Wot? Capital!
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You know, you could have said the same thing about
Plessy Vs. Ferguson in 1950. But fortunately, some people
didn't get over it.
But - serious question - why does a secessionist mindset in Texas bother you? The USSR split apart with the fall of communism. South American never clumped together in the first place. There is steady devolution in the United Kingdom. Belgium may eventually split. Look at the old Yugoslavia. Shucks, Texas is as big as France. If being in the US offered such great advantages, no-one would want to leave. If they do, there has to be an imbalance in the deal. I can see what's in it for the US, but what's in it for Texas?
As far as "the past is past", the following has occurred
IN MY ADULT LIFETIME!. During the period of OPEC ascendancy - 1973-1981, Texas oil was LIMITED IN PRICE BY US LAW to $2.56 a barrel while OPEC oil was fetching $12, then $20, then $30, and finally $40 a barrel, so the blended price made gasoline and heating oil cheaper in the northeast US. No wonder we went around with "Drive 70 and freeze a Yankee" bumper stickers. What would you do if
you were being paid as little as 7-8% of the open market price for your job, and legally prevented from getting the open market wage? Say, "thank you, let's do it again sometime."?
When the price of oil collapsed in the mid 1980's, so did the Texas banking industry. Not surprising, of course. Now when Wall Street went broke last year, the US government pumped trillions into them to keep them afloat. Down in Texas, that same government let 9 out of the 10 largest banks go broke and auctioned off the pieces. (I worked for the only survivor from 1980 to 1989. It survived because at the start of the bust, it had 60% of it's entire balance sheet in Treasury bonds. By 1990 it was inches away from failing anyway. Then the 1990 recession caused the Fed to worry about Citi and other New York banks, and created a steep yield curve to bail them out. It bailed out the only surviving Texas bank as well, as "collateral damage".) We could have done the same to those New York banks, but funny, we didn't. Unemployment? In 1986, Houston, Texas had an official unemployment rate of 20%. That was after 20% of the populace had moved out. That made an effective unemployment rate of around 40%. What was the Wall Street Journal take on it. "The Deflation in the Oil Patch helps keep the general inflation rate down." Thanks buddy. But don't worry, we Texans will have to pay our share of the Wall Street bailout.
So Steve, what has the US done for Texas in the last 40 years? And why do you think that the US is done using Texas?