The latest news on an important Quality of Life ranking of the states is real embarrassing to us Texans: Texas isn’t the worst place to live—just second from the worst. Yep, the Lone Star State ranks very poorly among all the other states in the U.S. Just when we were so business friendly, attracting all those mega-rich guys from California.
Hey, how come Texas is second from the worst state in the U.S. when it comes to living a good long life? According to the CNBC Quality of Life rankings, with the highest score being 290, our score is 78, an F. Oops, as one of our former governors replied in a nationally televised presidential debate.
Why sure, our lowest scores are in health, crime, inclusiveness, worker protection and reproductive rights. Yikes. [This survey smells of Yankeeism and northern aggression, don’t it? They might as well went on about how we practically give guns to everyone and anyone, no questions asked. That’s one of the things many Texans are proud of.]
Texas has the highest rate of uninsured people, 16.7 percent of us, which, see, is double the national average. Shucks. More than 17 percent of adults living in Texas do not seek medical care … because they CAN’T AFFORD IT. And finding a doctor around this great big state is another major problem, the reason why Texas ranks dead last in primary care physicians per capita.
As for the great rural hospital federal grant, turns out it’s a paltry $56 million and ends up being $350,000 for every rural hospital in this here state. That is not near enough money for 21st century hospitalization. Ev’rbody knows this.
Our quality of life strengths, kindly noted in the survey, are childcare and air quality, sure enough. ? (Does that make any sense, fellow Texans? Any of you traveled elsewhere in the U.S. and noticed how wonderfully light and clean and naturally fragrant the air is compared to sucking in our heavy air to which we’ve grown accustomed way down here in Texas?)
And childcare one of our strengths? That’s hard to believe for most working families. And it’s the reason young adults flat out refuse to have kids anymore. Real sad.
T for Texas, T for Tennessee
The CNBC Quality of Life rankings of the ten worst states are, from the better worst to the absolute worst: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Alabama, Missouri, Utah, Georgia, Louisiana, Indiana, Texas and Tennessee. Oklahoma better than Texas? That just chaps my hide.
The quality of life criteria checked were crime rates, air quality, healthcare access, worker protections and civil rights laws.
Pretty serious stuff. Real heady. The Quality of Life survey isn’t playing around. It’s hard hitting.
No doubt, our Texas Lege would like to remind everyone how we rank high in bidness. Like that means something (only to rich business people). I know, I know: for every dollar spent in a community, it rolls over seven times to benefit other businesses. How’s that working out for everyone today?
Texas has been the place of some awfully deadly yet preventable disasters in recent years, one being an embarrassing statewide winter freeze because Texas maintains its own electric grid separate from the rest of the nation. And we’re kinda backwoods that a-way. The grid has been notoriously inefficient, and no one’s been forced to pay for updates and modernization until that deadly freeze, maybe.
Then there was last year’s deadly Hill Country flash flood, killing more than 120, mostly girls at a riverside campsite. In short, that shouldn’t have happened a’tall.
Texas prides itself in friendliness. It’s the origins of our state name, lest we forget. But when it’s hotter than hell and your skin is scorched just stepping outside during the same few months of the year, people can’t pretend to be kind all the time. We can get hot under the collar. Maybe that’s where our political stubbornness comes from, I don’t know.
And the quality of life survey doesn’t even mention what’s going on in our public schools, how so many districts have been ‘taken over’ by the state due to consistently low scores on the annual state exams. Then there’s the peculiar mandates for Bible readings and lessons plus posting the Ten Commandments (in King James’ ye olde English, mind you) on the walls of every Texas public school classroom. Every American wants to know what’s up with that.
Not to forget the upcoming debate to stop mailed birth control including the abortion pill because Texas wants to keep all abortions (whether initiated by God or man) illegal as hell.
All of these qualities and traits of Texas make us out to be unwilling to deal with reality—reality being life in the middle of the 21st century. Seems our nostalgia for our well-known two-stepping songs about Texas being heaven on earth is nothing more than smoke and mirrors meant to entice folks who are thinking of moving down here to join us.
For three decades, Texas has become a blood Red state that has allowed and encouraged attributes that do not serve humanity … unless y’all rich and, well hell, conservative. Real conservative politically and religiously. If I were one of the state legislators, I’d take this national quality of life survey very seriously and get to fixin’ the problems during the upcoming session in 2027. But that would require a progressive mindset.