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Jobs and Texas

August 16, 2011, 11:38 pm

I barf when politicians take credit for private job creation.  At best, they stay out of the way.  At worst, they erect barriers to make growth and job formation more difficult.  So I am not ready to credit Rick Perry with Texas' economic performance over the last several years.

But despite enormous work on the left to try minimize the Texas performance, it does appear to be very impressive.  The author observes that merely comparing unemployment rates across states masks the huge job growth advantage in Texas.  Texas has higher relative unemployment compared to states like CA not because it is doing poorly, but because hundreds of thousands of people have given up on states like CA and moved to Texas looking for work.

Tags: , ,
Category: Economics
  • Anna

    You know that thing about how the economy is like a train, and that the government thinks it's running the train when all it can really do is pull on the brakes and slow it down, but it can't make it go any faster because it is not the engine that drives the train? I credit Rick Perry for not pulling the brakes on the Texas economy. And that puts him lightyears ahead of anyone currently in DC.

    (I live in California, and I know all about idiot state governments pulling on the damn brakes every chance they get.)

  • http://aretae.blogspot.com aretae

    I don't know if Perry is quite as aggressive on this point as Gary Johnson...but I believe that not only does he agree with your line on job growth (Get out of the way >> any other action), but he's said so as well.

  • Mick Heins

    To be fair, Perry comes right out and says that what he does is get out of the way and lets private industry do the rest. I like this quote: "I will work hard to make Washington DC as inconsequential in your lives as possible".

    His four points are 1) don't spend all of the money, 2) keep taxes low and under control, 3) make the regulatory climate fair and predictable, and 4) reform the legal system so frivolous lawsuits don't paralyze employers that are trying to create jobs.

    So he tells you that's all he does to create jobs. Doesn't sound like overly taking credit to me.

  • Robert

    Perry is a typical politician, i.e., pathological liar. If you haven't already, you should read Will Grigg's excellent article, "Rickey the Rent Boy", posted on Pro Libertate today.

    http://freedominourtime.blogspot.com/2011/08/ricky-rent-boy.html

  • Brian

    Instead of listening to what Perry says, why not take a look at what he's done. To the extent Perry has done anything to promote job growth in Texas, it's the result of his doubling the state's indebtedness and enacting some pretty heavy-handed legislation that intrudes into numerous business and private interests.