Last week, I noted that Dallas-area personal income had declined 5 percent during the 2000’s. Rice University’s Steve Murdoch says it is only the beginning of a long downward trend. The surge in Hispanic population (only 6 percent of which is undocumented or illegal, choose your term) will result in 15 percent decline in Anglo children in the public school system and a 213 percent increase in Hispanic children.
Unless the trend line changes, 30 percent of the state’s labor force will not have even a high school diploma by 2040, he said. And the average household income will be about $6,500 lower than it was in 2000. That figure is not inflation adjusted so it will be worse than what it sounds.
Compounding the problem, in my view, is a political system that rewards short-term thinking and posturing rather than preparing for the future. If voters judged mainly on performance and results, for example, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst — constitutionally, the most powerful state official — would not even be able to show his face in public. Instead, he is regarded as the frontrunner in next year’s U. S. Senate race.
