Living in Texas

[JPK]

Last edited Mon Jul 7, 2025, 11:23 AM - Edit history (1)

Can just living in Texas be a cause for more deaths than other states? Between flood deaths, electrical grid failure deaths, mass shooting deaths, explosions at chemical plants and fertilizer storage facilities, not to mention the extreme heat in the summer.
Everything is bigger in Texas, including the chance of your being dead.

[MineralMan]

1. Not Possible for Me.

I lived twice in Texas for temporary periods. Three months in San Antonio, at Lackland AFB, and two months at Goodfellow AFB in San Angelo. I had no choice, either time. The USAF thought that I should live there. The USAF was incorrect. I have not been in Texas since.

[dalton99a]

2. Texas has the highest uninsured rate in the U.S.

There are no paid family leave or paid sick leave laws

The list goes on

And people drive like shit

[DFW]

12. I have to take issue with the drivers

Many who come to Texas bring their driving habits with them from elsewhere.

On the other hand, “Massachusetts driver” and “Boston driver” are legitimate insults to people from many states. I take my annual summer vacation in Massachusetts, and rent a car for the whole time. Each year is a refresher course in defensive driving and survival training.

[JCMach1]

25. US-75 and I-635 in Dallas are straight out of Mad Max

[markodochartaigh]

27. 75, Central Expressway used to be far worse.

When I moved to Dallas in 1986 it was two lanes each way from 635 south. Some of the onramps were literally less than 100 feet long. It wasn't uncommon to see cars with people hanging out the back driver's side window frantically waving people over so the driver could get on the expressway. Having a blowout was a death sentence if traffic was moving. Traffic often was not moving, it was often a twenty mile long parking lot.

[DFW]

30. At the wrong time of day

Central is the biggest parking lot in Texas

[DFW]

29. So are the Mass Pike, I-93 and Mass. Rte. 3

The difference is that in MA, it’s 95% unfriendly natives. In Dallas, it’s at least 50% people who learned to drive elsewhere.

[Ilsa]

3. Spent 75% of my life there. Never going back.

There is a brutality to living there that I haven't seen in other places. Schools, social safety net, weather and religion all feel brutal, sometimes they feel weaponized for launching hatred.

[mgardener]

4. Mississippi is #1

Texas is #2
From AI.

[Paladin]

5. Enjoy your stay.

The correct spelling is "Texas." You're welcome.

[JPK]

13. I corrected it

Feel better now? Didn't mean to offend your Texas sized sensitivities.

[Paladin]

14. Bye-bye. (nt)

[mwmisses4289]

21. Seems to depend on what's happening, doesn't?

I've heard most texans refer to the state as texass at one time or another. It's also known as tejas.
A lot of us also joke that it's a great state to be from- far from.
My experience growing up here, take it for what it's worth.

[mwmisses4289]

6. I grew up here in texas when dad got stationed

at one of the AFBs. At that time, Texas usually came in around 25 on polls of the best states to live in. This was in the 1970's, before the repugs took over the state in the 1990's. Took them less than thirty years to drop the state to the bottom five worst places to live (Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and West Virginia are worse).

[walkingman]

9. You nailed it - I was transferred to Texas in early 70s. Great place. It has been a downhill slide

since BushII was Governor. Remarkable difference. Gets worse every year.

[Blue Full Moon]

17. I always liked Ann Richards

[ananda]

7. Texas wasn't always this bad.

Before Bush, it was fine.

After that, downhill to this.

[Blue Full Moon]

18. Same here in Ohio. Taft, DeWine, Kasich, Vionovich

[Torchlight]

8. It has it's merits as well as its bad points.

I imagine that's true of most places. We enjoy living here. Sure, there’s plenty we’d like to see change—and we’re always working on that—but mostly, we just go about our lives and stick close to our people, same as most folks do.

[MagickMuffin]

10. 5th Generation Texan

The problem with Texas are the republicans.

Nature disasters happen everywhere. Is it true republicans don’t want to fix our problems, yes. But again nothing that doesn’t happen elsewhere where republicans rule the state government.

And you show real maturity using double ss.

[DFW]

20. People who spell like that don't mind trashing the five million Democrats in Texas

They often use Republicanese spelling, too. You just gotta roll your eyes and move on.

[JPK]

22. Double ss

That would be ssss. So ok, Texassss. There, fixed it.

[Ping Tung]

11. "Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things

"Life in Lubbock, Texas, taught me two things: One is that God loves you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the most awful, filthy thing on earth and you should save it for someone you love." - Butch Hancock

[Paladin]

15. Always a mistake, to equate the rest of Texas with Lubbock.

Trust me, I know.

[FHRRK]

23. I see the OP took crap for adding a s to Texas

Is calling the town Lubbuttocks acceptable?

Asking for a friend.

[Ping Tung]

26. Everything is subjective - in the eye of the beholder.

Some people are more delicate than others.

[Blue Full Moon]

16. But the rich need more money.

In 2016, Hewitt Engineering warned that Kerr County faced a high risk of a devastating flood. They recommended a network of high-water sensors, river gauges, and automated alerts to protect lives. FEMA and NOAA offered funding pathways, but local Republican leadership rejected those recommendations—choosing instead a bare-bones SMS-only alert system, without the sensors, without automation, and without full coordination.

[harumph]

19. The larger cities have good amenities and generally trend Democratic.

I don't know what to tell you. In the past 5 years or so, the climate has gotten more unpredictable, and the weather changes on a dime. "Tornado alley" has shifted south and we are encountering more of them as well as severe straight line winds in the North Texas area. This is causing some home insurance companies to pull out. When city folk like me go out to the little towns - it's like going to a different country, although it's not as bad as parts of Arkansas where you get the feeling you could be kidnapped and tortured in a goat farmer's basement. I don't put any bumper stickers of a political nature on my car (even though I would be fine driving around Dallas-Ft.Worth). But here's where the stereotype fits: pretty much every person I know - whether Democratic or Republican, have guns (plural). Not like 20 guns, but more like on average one or two pistols, maybe a shotgun and maybe a hunting rifle. While I am in no danger in the area I live in, when traveling to rural areas of Texas, I pack a gun and a lunch. Rural areas and some exurbs trend Republican. Southern Baptists who believe really crazy shit - and who go around asking if you've "...accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior?" and furthermore, tend to be racist-as-fuck, dominate the non-urban regions (which are quite vast).

Other than the rural crazies, Texas isn't that bad: the University of Texas (Nat. rank #30) and the greater UT system are highly ranked nationally. Rice comes in at #18. The GDP of Texas is enormous ($2.4 Trillion), which if it were a country would make it 8th in the world. Let that sink in. It's the second largest state GDP after California. Texas has a $24 billion surplus and a $28 billion so-called "rainy day fund." Lots of jobs. Our roads are generally well maintained but DFW airport is super busy, super large and a super fucked up mess. I live in a 1st generation suburb of Dallas and I get trash pick up twice a week and letters from the city if I don't mow the yard.

[electric_blue68]

24. I've known (non polititians) Good Liberal Texans before DU.

[Mollyann]

28. Been here a while.

I am a seventh generation Texan to live here. The first two generations, father and sons with their spouses, came before the Texas Revolution. My children, grandchildren and great grands make up the eighth, ninth and tenth. I guess you get acclimated. I hate the cold. I can deal with the summers.