According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 214,000 net new jobs were created in the United States from August 2009 to August 2010. Texas created 119,000 jobs during the same period.

– Rich Lowry (HT: RealClearPolitics)

So what happens when a state government governs a state with as light of a touch as possible? What really happens when a place deregulates on a major scale? Well, according to the IRS, a whole bunch of new people move there. Texas Governor, Rick Perry does some boasting below.

“I am pleased to receive the endorsement of the Southwest Movers Association, which plays a key role in supporting the more than 1,000 people who move to Texas every day,” he said Dec. 29. “As our state continues to grow, I look forward to working with members and stakeholders of SMA to ensure that Texas remains a top destination for job seekers.”

– Gov. Rick Perry (HT: Politifact.com)

The Austin American Statesman went hunting after Governor Perry made this outlandish claim. Never one to pass up an opportunity to embarrass a Republican politician, they decided to fact check Gov. Perry. According to the IRS, Texas gained 493,480 Federal taxpayers between 2007 and 2008. That’s 1,352 new Texans a day on average; over a 365 day standard year.

Not quite everything is wine and roses in The Lone Star State. Their unemployment rate has recently gone up 2.3%, and its next bi-annual budget is short $15B. This compares to a 9.6% U3 rate nationally and should be taken with a slight grain of salt and shot of tequila given that Texas’ population is rapidly expanding.

Texas is not completely Anarcho-Capitalist, but the regulatory restraint is admirable. It’s perfectly legal for me to sit on a blanket on a beach in Galveston and drink a Shiner. Texans would just expect me to act like a gentleman while I did it. If you restrain yourself, so will the State apparatus. You are free to do a lot of simple things in Texas that other places crack down on.

Texas has no income tax, but it does tax. It taxes consumption and real wealth via high sales and property taxes. Texas encourages productivity and work and discourages grotesquely conspicuous consumption. I’ll admit that Jerry Jones hasn’t been perturbed in the slightest, but then again, his lifestyle probably pays several hundred teachers and State Troopers every year. In Texas, you keep what you produce, you are taxed upon what you hoard and consume.

The Texans do like less government. The state is right to work. Their state government is the same proportion of state GDP that is was in 1987. Texas wants business. In return for this desire, they are rewarded with jobs. The jobs bring people. Texas’ population expansion is truly an American success story.

Nearly ½ Million new Texans can’t all be wrong. I was fortunate that my life decisions and career trajectory gave me the opportunity to live and work near Ft. Hood, Texas for nearly four years. America is fortunate that we have Texas as an example of how to do things properly. We will need that model as we emerge from the continued wreckage that our over-expanding governance and micro-management has inflicted upon our once-free and great national culture.

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