I've always heard the Texas expression "thank God for Mississippi" wherever state rankings are concerned, but it occured to me that our neighbors in the social spending basement are states like Alabama and Mississippi. What gives? We have economic powerhouses like Houston and Dallas. We have one of the biggest high-tech industries in the country. So I asked myself, "Where does Texas rank in social spending as a percentage of what we could spend if we wanted to.

And someone was listening, because just the other day I heard on the radio that if you look at Texas' per-child spending as a percentage of median family income, we come in 50th.

Which means there's someone in Mississippi saying, "Thank God for Texas."

[of course, I could not verify this when I googled, so I can't swear that it's true.]
rj | Homepage | 06.27.06 - 2:48 pm | #