Will the U.S. start to look like Texas?

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http://ideas.time.com/2013/10/17/10-rea ... ur-future/

This article is a bit older, but we are on a migration kick, so I assumed it would be of interest to you guys. According to this article, the future of the U.S. looks something like Texas. With a potent combination of a super-low cost of living and robust business climate, Texas is adding people much faster than any other state, save Florida (and much of Florida's growth are retirees, not job seekers). Jobs are notoriously low-paying (although Texas does account for a third of growth in high wage jobs last decade), but the low cost of living partially or fully offsets that. And for those of us who think that Texas is a bunch of conservative rednecks, Austin is a liberal mecca that is also very cheap.

Is Texas what the rest of the U.S. will look like in the future? I have my doubts. While I applaud Texas for its business success, I do not think it can sustain its ultra-cheap standard of living. To sum up, their model for achieving this is way too energy intensive to be sustainable long-term, and they are more vulnerable than most states to climate change. I imagine Texas will one day turn into what California is now: once a model for the entire nation, but now a joke and a deeply unpleasant place to live.

The biggest problem I have with this article is the comparison of home prices between Texas and Brooklyn. Of course Texas real estate is (on average) going to be much, much cheaper than Brooklyn.

I don't understand how #2,#3,#4,#9 and #10 have anything to do with any particular state. And other than #1 and #7, none are exclusive to Texas.

Interesting read, but it could easily have been written by the Texas Board of Economic Development.