A Simple Observation

We’re not in Texas anymore, but damn it’s a big state. It’s cold so we’re staying in motels on the way back to Colorado instead of camping in beautiful spots, which is what we prefer. That’s fine in Texas because, compared to Colorado, they have almost no public land. The invisible hand has taken it all away.

Anyway, here’s an observation that you won’t read in Cletus safaris from the NYT: how I judge a small town. The small west Texas town we stayed in the night before last had a lot of Christian businesses. I’ll never patronize a business that has a cross in the logo or advertises that they’re “Christ-centered” or whatever other Christian signals it sends out. I think those businesses wear that on their sleeves in an effort to keep potentially dissatisfied customers from complaining, plus I don’t trust people who advertise their Christianity. I think they’re fundamentally dishonest.

The town also had political signs where the candidate said they were a “MAGA Trump Republican” - if you need to put that on your political sign, then I think the town’s in pretty bad shape. Interestingly enough, I saw a lot of other signs in larger Texas towns where the candidate advertised that they were “conservative” and didn’t say they were Republican. I don’t know how to decode that, but my guess is that some Texan traditional Republicans are tired of Trumpism.

But the real tell about the status of a town’s economy isn’t the many signs informing me that prayer works, or that I should love Jesus more. It’s the maids at the hotel. In the case of this particular town, they were all townies — white women. If being a maid at a hotel is a job that townies take, that means that your town has very little opportunity. If the maids are all Spanish speakers, then I’m guessing that your town’s economy is at least OK, since there are higher paying jobs available for non-immigrants.

Maybe the NYT can’t say this as frankly as I do because they think it’s racist (well, I’m a Mexican and I don’t think it’s racist, FWIW), but it’s a fact: the presence of immigrants is an indicator of a healthy economy.