[Vision2020] Do We Want Another President from a Third World Petrostate?

[nickgier at roadrunner.com]

Hail to the Vision!

This my second column on Perry.  I'd better rush to get them all published before he crashes and burns!  The full version--from which I will derived at least two other columns--is attached.

I love watching the GOP candidates limping along.  It looks as if Mitt will most likely make it after all.

NickONE MORE PRESIDENT FROM A THIRD WORLD PETROSTATE?

If we keep doing what we're doing now, 
Texas will have the economy of a Third World country.
~Democratic State Rep. Pete Gallego of Texas

Recently the New York Times aptly illustrated the style of Perry’s Texan economic model when it ran an article about a company with an abysmal safety record.  Complaining about OSHA rules, its management bragged that it would set up shop only in the Third World or Texas.  

To prove that comparisons to the Third World are not an exaggeration, let’s look at some health statistics.  In 2002 the number of teen births for young women ages 15-19 ranged from 3 and 4 per 1,000 girls in South Korea and Japan to 5-20 per 1,000 in Western Europe. 

The weighted average for 28 rich countries was 15 teen births for every 1,000 girls. After falling from a high of 55 in 2005, the U.S. number for 2009 was still a shocking 42.  In 2005 Indonesia had 55 teen births per 1,000 girls and Mexico had 64.

In 2009 teen births in Texas were 63 out of 1,000 girls versus 20 for Massachusetts. One might guess that women marry earlier in Texas, but 91 percent of Lone Star pregnant teens were unmarried in 2008. The fact that Perry has passed the strictest abstinence laws in the nation makes this statistic even more embarrassing.

Even with this “Just Say No” campaign, 52 percent Texas teens were sexually experienced by 10th grade in 2009 compared to 41 percent nation-wide. At 6.1 percent Lone State girls under thirteen are more sexually active than the national average at 5.9 percent. 

The lowest child poverty rates in the world can be found in Denmark and Finland, where in 2005 only 3 percent of children were defined as poor.  Using the same standard, 22 percent of American children lived in poverty. Nearly 28 percent of Mexican children are defined as poor in this UNICEF survey. According to a recent study by the Center for Public Policy Priorities, the child poverty rate in Texas has now reached 25 percent, an increase of 17 percent since Perry took office in 2000.  

In 2010 nearly four million Texans were on food stamps, the sixth highest increase in the nation since 2009. (Idaho, I believe, had the highest increase.) Three out of four Texans—18 million people—don’t have health insurance, the worst record in the country. A shocking 95 percent of Lone Star children under 18 are without medical coverage.

Only 62 percent of Texan expectant mothers receive prenatal care. These women rank 44th in receiving mammograms and 47th for those undergoing a pap smear.  Partially as a result, Texas has the 5th highest cervical cancer rate in the country. 

Critics might say that all of these statistics are skewed by the fact that Texas has a very high Hispanic population. Significantly, there is only a 6 percent difference in condom use between Lone Star white and Hispanic teens. In Texas young women taking the pill lag their national peers by 5 percent but the difference between Hispanics and their counterparts elsewhere is only one percent. There is also only a 7.2 percent deficit in Hispanic high school graduates in Texas. 

Although some of our nativists would wish it otherwise, infant mortality among all Americans from south of the border are over one percent lower than white Americans.  High infant mortality is one of the key data points for Third World countries, so I reject the proposition that illegal immigration—rather than poor health and social programs—is the reason why Texas has become a Third World state.

New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanic residents at 46 percent while California and Texas are at 38 percent. The Hispanic teen birth rate in New Mexico is 85 for every 1,000 teens and 67 in California, but it is 97 in Texas with 9 percent fewer Hispanics.

Ethnic diversity has increased in European countries over the years but low teen birth and abortion rates have remained constant.  Again this indicates that main reason for the poor American performance is the lack of proper sex education, social, and medical services.

Governor Perry believes that most government programs—except perhaps crop subsidies (which Farmer Perry gladly accepted) and NASA—are unconstitutional, and he proposes that Medicare, Medicaid, environmental and labor regulation be run by the states.  

This is a clear recipe for turning the entire nation into a Third World nation. In terms labor laws, worker safety, environmental regulation, health care, and social services the Lone Star State is already in that position.

Nick Gier taught philosophy at the University of Idaho for 31 years.
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