Texas is America Inc's new centre of gravity

Republicans and the Supreme Court have learned their lessons from Georgia, and will never let this happen. They will find new ways to disenfranchise all the people who'd vote blue. Plus their war on education ensures that people who grow up there will remain uninformed and hateful and thus red.

peyton• 1 month ago

State officials are eager to supplant Delaware as America’s corporate-law hub. In 2024 they established the Texas Business Court, presided over by expert judges capable of handling even the most complex disputes. Last year the state also introduced a measure to allow firms to prevent shareholders with a stake of less than 3% from suing them, and another to let only large shareholders put forward proxy proposals.

Interesting, hadn’t heard. I can’t wait to see where this goes.

Working with regulators is a terrible experience. I hope they can fix this as well.

kmeisthax• 1 month ago

Texas saw "one share one vote" and thought "that isn't exclusionary enough, we should disenfranchise retail shareholders altogether".

alephnerd4• 1 month ago

Additionally, Apollo (the world's second largest PE firm after Blackstone) has just selected Austin as it's second HQ [0] as it is looking to shift the bulk of it's hiring and headcount outside of NYC [1].

This is a huge deal, just like how Wachovia-Wells Fargo merger helped build NC's PE industry and Citadel's new HQ in Miami helps put Florida on the map for high finance.

[0] https://www.ft.com/content/036a838f-8209-4df7-8cbc-bb069e4e7...

[1] https://www.ft.com/content/efeca6be-c9b5-4912-b66b-15716cc91...

woodruffw• 1 month ago

I’m skeptical about this, at least for finance. Your second link points out that these firms are between a rock and a hard place: senior employees and leadership are already established in NYC, and junior employees/new hires want to move there (both for the experience, but also because it exposes them to competitors/alternative employers).

Perhaps it’s different this time, but the underlying message in the past has been more about negotiation with the city and state rather than an earnest intent to relocate to an entirely new state (and regulatory environment, etc).

alephnerd4• 1 month ago

I don't expect it to displace NYC but it's a good shift and it's good to have additional clusters arise.

For example, if you were always specialized in Energy, Houston/Dallas would have always been comparable to NYC, or if you were specialized in TMT then LA and SF were similar.

Reading between the lines, I'm assuming Austin was chosen not just for QoL but also to solidify an Energy and probably AI and Data Center thesis as well. Also, I'd assume most backoffice roles like Accounting, Compliance, IT, etc would be shifted to Austin similar to what JPMC did in Dallas.

water-data-dude2• 1 month ago

As a gay dude I will never take a job in Texas. Companies may enjoy the lax regulatory environment and favorable tax laws, but there are many bright people who - for one of a NUMBER of reasons - will never move there. It is repressive and frightening.

Who knows if that will be enough to move the needle on any of this, but companies aren't just buildings and incorporation paperwork, they're also the people.

testing223212• 1 month ago

Same thoughts as the father of a young girl.

I don’t want her to have less rights.

jleyank3• 1 month ago

Some folks find Howdy Arabia to be a pleasant, rewarding place to live. To me, I think roughly half of the US working population would dispute this, as they would dispute a discussion of any other place. It's just that the disputants change based on where you're talking about.

It's warm. It's dry, and there's some evidence the power system isn't up to the task. Their call.

EPWN3D• 1 month ago

Fewer rights.

cyanydeez• 1 month ago

as a normal human being who enjoys social safety nets and don't want to shut down local pools just because black people are allowed in them, I also don't like texas.

moomoo112• 1 month ago

california forever

i hope the right people and companies leave and go deal with high humidity and heat waves

sbmthakur• 1 month ago

Y'all are welcome to Washington if you can stand the gloom.

scoofy13• 1 month ago

People who "refuse to move" to Texas honestly have no idea what they're talking about. Yes, you probably wouldn't like it, but it's certainly not what you think it is. I grew up in Texas (mostly Austin), and later in life moved to California, and genuinely can't stand the navel-gazey "I've never been there but I know I'd hate it" type of attitude that prevails here.

Texas is a gerrymandered purple state, not a red state. It's just that the state is the California's bogey-man, because Californians don't actually want to face the fact that we have major problems with long-term affordability and the ability to build a life for middle-class folks (perhaps less appreciated by the disproportionately high-income folks on this forum). Every single urban area in Texas is now heavily aligned with the Democratic party, and the vast majority of those areas are affordable places to build a life and build wealth.

When I was growing up in Austin, it had the second highest per-capita gay population in America after San Francisco. Houston had a lesbian mayor. In many cities Spanish is the dominant language spoken. Texas cities are not some place where minorities have to fear for their safety.

The reason not to move to Texas is that it's a suburban hellscape, and you'll be stuck in traffic for more hours a day than you'd like to admit. I left after pushing for transportation alternatives at Austin City Hall, and the result of that traffic mitigation was an express lane down the highway. Texas is, in large part, following the development pattern of Southern California.

Austin, San Antonio, and El Paso are all lovely towns, full of vibrancy, amazing culture, friendly people, reasonable weather most of the year, wonderful food, and reasonable cost of living. Politics are an issue, but again, that all hangs on a 2%-5% swing in a census year, and the entire state could end up redrawn as 50-50 split. I just want folks on the American coasts to remember that a big part of why Texas is branded as "that really bad place" is exactly because folks on the coast refuse to look in the mirror and fix the problems of affordability, wealth inequality, and clean energy that Texas has addressed. Instead, they've made Texas a bogey man that is "very bad" so that you can't point to things like rapid development of housing and renewables as actually the way to fix affordability.

californical2• 1 month ago

Honestly it may be 50-50 purple in population, but the policies are what affect people the most. I’m not even worried about Democrat vs Republican, as I’m not associated to either party, and both have their share of crazy.

There are a number of laws in Texas that make it a non-option for many of us.

toomuchtodo4• 1 month ago

Texas policy is actively hostile to women and the poor (healthcare, labor protections, etc). You’re probably fine if of means, and not a woman of reproductive age. Everyone else is existing in Texas as an economic human factory farm.

https://spectrumlocalnews.com/tx/south-texas-el-paso/news/20...

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/07/13/10-states-worst-quality-of-l...

https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-abortion-ban-miscar...

https://www.propublica.org/article/texas-maternal-mortality-...

https://www.propublica.org/series/life-of-the-mother

jleyank3• 1 month ago

Purple, eh? Guess the blue ones weren't around when the various abortion issues were voted on. The OB/GYN population must not like the sun.

_DeadFred_• 1 month ago

Is it this state people are talking about? This isn't my center of anything.

"Racist clauses in property deeds can’t be enforced, but still exist. A Texas bill would make it easier to remove them."

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/17/texas-property-deeds...

"Racist Clauses Are Common In Local Zoning Documents. Several Texas Bills Would Make It Easier To Change That." https://www.kut.org/texas/2021-05-14/racist-clauses-are-comm...

The real reason companies are moving to Texas (the casual racism is just a bonus)? Court shopping for their arbitration clauses. If you sue/have an arbitration dispute with a Texas based company they have strategically located their headquarters in the areas with the most 'court shopped' judges that will rule for the corps.

And even worse than establishing corporate headquarters as a form of court shopping, creations of corporate courts. https://www.commondreams.org/news/texas-business-courts

And the new Texas hotness? Why yes, private courts. https://www.steptoe.com/en/news-publications/private-judges-...

Refuse to do business with Texas corporations. They are un-American and take away so many of your rights when you do business with companies based there.

dylan6043• 1 month ago

Texas is a gerrymandered purple state, not a red state

Man, I just don't get this at all. Sure, there may be some democratic areas in the large cities, but they pretty much have zero say in the local state governance. Look at the recent walk outs and leaving the state only to return to have the legislation they were protesting pass with nothing they could do. There is no democratic power. Even those large cities that lean left have attempted to buck the system by passing local regulations that the state then sues them to prevent those liberal policies from taking place. As an example, Dallas passed decriminalization for marijuana, but the governor said no via law suits. This idea of Texas being purple just comes across as farcical and out of touch. I say this as someone that grew up in Dallas, lived in LA, and now lives back in Dallas. You sound just like someone from Austin.

I know plenty of women that are very unhappy with the state for not dissimilar reasons as the GP with friends that have moved out of state specifically for the government's apparent disdain for women.

sleepyguy2• 1 month ago

I don't know why you're being junked, you said nothing that any Texas resident wouldn't agree with. Shit, we have two of the largest airlines in the world that as an industry have always been incredibly welcoming to the LGBT community.

The only thing that sucks about Texas is the property taxes, other than that it is a very welcoming state with great infra and comfortable standard of living.

queenkjuul3• 1 month ago

I've been there, it sucks, i will never move there

fzeroracer3• 1 month ago

I've lived in Texas. It is exactly as bad as people say, and I will never move back. Regardless of how nice Austin is, there is only so much I can tolerate an actively hostile state government to my existence.

tzs2• 1 month ago

Every single urban area in Texas is now heavily aligned with the Democratic party, and the vast majority of those areas are affordable places to build a life and build wealth.

How much does that matter with the state legislature firmly in Republican control? The legislature isn't shy about making state laws to stop cities when the cities try to do Democrat things locally.

wenc• 1 month ago

Just to add to your Texas comment: there are a few larger states that have distinct hubs where people think so differently, that they might as well be living in different states. People who haven't lived in these states don't really have a good feel for how different the internal cultures can be.

California: we know how SoCal is culturally worlds apart from Norcal, and both are worlds apart from inland California.

North Carolina: culturally Charlotte ≠ Research Triangle ≠ Greensboro-Winston Salem-High Point. There is no single NC culture.

Florida: the stereotypes exist, but I've visited different metros in Florida and they couldn't be more different. South Florida (Miami) is very Latin while the panhandle (Tallahassee, Pensacola) couldn't be less Latin -- it's mostly southern culture. Orlando, Tampa are also way different.

Florida in fact shouldn't be governable -- every part of the state has different interests. Yet it somehow works.

QuiEgo• 1 month ago

I live in Texas (Austin). The biggest downside day-to-day is the weather in summer. The politics are also a valid concern.

That said, it’s not some dystopian hellscape. Day-to-day it’s not that different than any other place.

Also the cost of living is a lot less than the big tech centers (Bay Area and Seattle). A similar house to mine with a similar commute in a similar quality school district is 4x the price in the Bay Area. I can give my family a better life here.

mancerayder• 1 month ago

All this is true, but the abortion restrictions are state-wide and a real issue while also remaining a symbolic turn-off for women from blue states. The bigger issue is the influence of Christianity on the legal system, which approaches third world levels for such a rich state.

AnneTrotter• 1 month ago

No, the reason not to live there is that I don't have the save civil rights as in other states. My life is, on a fundamental level, worth measurably less in Texas than that of a brainless fetus. I can't get lifesaving healthcare if I accidentally get pregnant. If you're totally cool living where around 50% of the population aren't legally your equal, you may not have done your homework on how this always turns out.

mplanchard• 1 month ago

I lived in Austin for a decade, and I think this is off base.

Yes, Austin is not like rural Texas. But also, the state legislature is in Austin and loves nothing more than voting down or making illegal any progressive measure Austin tries to take. While I was there, we voted pretty overwhelmingly for a solid plan to add some trains, but the state leg then made the method of funding illegal. Same on the plastic bag ban. Same on regulating uber and lyft.

And, much more critically, same on abortion and other issues that directly impact people’s fundamental rights. Not sure if Garza is still DA, but his power to selectively enforce state law is limited, and people can still be denied lifesaving care because of regressive state laws, or prosecuted for having a suspicious miscarriage. Any kind of care for trans people is similarly handicapped.

The state politics also mean that public nature access is not great. The few nice places in the vicinity of Austin are usually overcrowded, and there are far fewer state or national parks compared to other large states.

I am glad to have moved out, and I would never move back while the state politics remain what they are.

Also “reasonable weather most of the year” is a stretch. Reasonable if you love summer, I guess, but six months of brutal heat is not fun.

water-data-dude2• 1 month ago

I know that if I lived somewhere urban it would feel welcoming. I know there's a large LGBT community there already. I know that there's gay clubs and stuff like Texas Furry Fiesta.

But the urban areas aren't passing the state laws. The state of Texas has laws that ban teachers from talking about LGBT topics or about LGBT folks in school. If I were to find a partner and I wanted to adopt, in Texas I have no protections against discrimination. A child placing agency can exclude me on religious grounds.

Trans folks face all that and more. They ban transgender folks from using school facilities. They ban trans folks from using public restrooms. They do that thing where they define gender as being exactly equal to biological sex. The "panic" defense is allowed in murder cases. I'm not trans personally, but they're part of my community and they're slowly having their existence criminalized.

Again: there are many parts of Texas that are great. The legal landscape is hostile to LGBT folks.

saguntum• 1 month ago

Gay Texan here leaving the country next year. Maybe culturally in the cities you have a point, but the gerrymandered state government still very much affects you: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas_Senate_Bill_12

Thanks to SB12, it would be illegal for a teacher to answer when a student in my kids’ class asks why they have 2 dads. They would also be unable to join a support club like the Gay Straight Alliance which was (barely) tolerated when I grew up here in the 00s. This isn’t even mentioning performative BS like teachers having to hang the 10 commandments in schools, or the rabid anti-trans laws affecting adult treatment and identity documents. Discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity is also banned in higher education, as well.

This isn’t even covering the abortion ban or other issues. A friend’s sister almost died of an ectopic pregnancy because she couldn’t find a doctor to help terminate. She wanted the child, but nature had other plans.

I love Texas and agree with a lot of the positive points you raised. I wish I didn’t have to abandon my family and friends having lived here for over a decade as an adult and having grown up here, but I can’t raise my kids here.

yencabulator• 1 month ago

That's funny because I lived in California for years and nobody even mentioned Texas, while Texans can't seem to do anything but tell everyone they think of California.

sleepyguy2• 1 month ago

Where the hell are you getting your information? Texas has the second-largest LGBTQ+ population in the United States, trailing only California. An estimated 1.8 million LGBTQ+ adults reside in the state. Demographically, this includes approximately 735,000 gay or lesbian adults, over 1.2 million bisexual individuals, and nearly 93,000 transgender

xboxnolifes• 1 month ago

The second largest state by population has the second largest population of a subset of the population? You don't say.

Arodex• 1 month ago

The Southern states had the largest black population. Would you have told a black person it is fine to go live there at the height of Jim Crow?

DivingForGold• 1 month ago

Thank you for NOT coming to Texas at all, we have plenty in Austin. 4th generation Texan.

darth_avocado• 1 month ago

Sounds like a whole lot of “companies can do whatever they want to without anyone else having a say in it”. Sounds amazing in the short term but a nightmare in the long term if you live there.

gpm• 1 month ago

Honestly it sounds like a nightmare even in the short term, companies are well known for literally poisoning everyone around them when no one else has a say in it...

The low regulation and trend of news articles from Texas... it doesn't inspire confidence.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48249747 / https://reclaimthenet.org/texas-woman-arrested-for-facebook-...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48198551 / https://www.autonocion.com/us/tesla-lithium-refinery-texas/

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44121178 / https://www.texastribune.org/2025/05/28/texas-fracking-water...

m-hodges2• 1 month ago

Anticipating all the Texas hate comments, just gonna plant a flag and say I love living in Austin. This city rules.

alephnerd4• 1 month ago

Yep. It's a great city though I wouldn't live there due to the summers.

Honestly, the reflexive hate both Texas and California get on HN is ridiculous and a great way to filter out accounts to ignore.

There are valid criticisms to make for both, but if someone only criticizes and cannot point out or conceed positive attributes as well, it's best to just treat that account as a lost cause.

m-hodges2• 1 month ago

I have a mirror feeling about Chicago: very good city, but I wouldn’t want to live there due to the winters.

Geographic negative polarization has become far too entrenched in online discourse.

jimbob45• 1 month ago

Rural Washington, Oregon, and California actually are what these leftists think Texas is. Let’s not forget which state Cliven and Ammon Bundy staged their standoff in.

ChrisArchitect• 1 month ago

[dupe] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48418721

nostrademons• 1 month ago

Something I've wondered: for all its claims of business-friendliness, why does Texas insist on attracting the lowest-margin industries? All of the high-margin innovation-based industries continue to get started in California.

There was a huge Bitcoin push in Texas about 5ish years back. But the way they went about it was that they passed a bunch of tax breaks for Bitcoin miners - the most commodified, energy-intensive part of the value chain. Coinbase and Kraken and Ripple and Solana and Binance's U.S. operations are all based out of California.

The article mentions Exxon's reincorporation in Texas, and Chevron also recently moved their headquarters from California to Houston. But oil is a dying, commodified industry. The replacement is electrification, in terms of solar, batteries, EVs, inverters, and other parts of the value chain. Enphase is in California, SunPower was until its recent bankruptcy, Tesla R&D is still in Palo Alto, and other major companies like Rivian and Lucid also put all their R&D in the Bay Area.

The other major industry Texas is known for is construction, and cheap houses. But construction, if you read any of the construction-physics.com articles that frequently pop up here, is another famously low-margin industry. We know how to do it, and millions of people do.

My theory is that low-margin industries get located in Texas because they make it easy. By being business-friendly, low-regulation, and low-expenses, they become the only place that low-margin commodity businesses can survive. Thus, everyone who has no pricing power and struggles to cut costs moves to Texas, because they offer the lowest costs of everyone.

California is the opposite: by making business onerous, creating huge amounts of regulation, taxing the hell out of both people and businesses, and enshrining a pyramid scheme in their state constitution via Prop 13, they make sure that only the richest can survive there. And thus only the richest do survive. The state is filled with wealthy companies and wealthy individuals because everybody else got priced out and moved elsewhere. Selection effects dominate efficiency effects.

enraged_camel• 1 month ago

> Something I've wondered: for all its claims of business-friendliness, why does Texas insist on attracting the lowest-margin industries?

Tech is one of the highest margin industries.

NewJazz3• 1 month ago

Not blockchain tech.

schmookeeg• 1 month ago

I find it amusing that these two stories hit the front page one right after the other.

Texas is America Inc's new centre of gravity
What Happens to an Economy When It's Too Hot to Work?

dylan6043• 1 month ago

What Happens to an Economy When It's Too Hot to Work?

Same thing that happens when it's too cold to work? Wait for another season?

queenkjuul3• 1 month ago

I love how on an article about Texas, half the comments are about California. As a Midwesterner, i always forget that those are the only two places

OutOfHere• 1 month ago

Texans, I hope you like PFAS in your water and soil because Texas being unregulated would have loads of it.

arppacket2• 1 month ago

Given the state's war on education, how do companies think they'll have a pipeline of well educated workers? We know it's only going to become more biblical as long as the current Supreme Court exists.

Texas is America Inc's new centre of gravity

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