I assume from your response that you are a man since you didn’t mention the most important freedom of all that I mentioned, the right to have reproductive healthcare.
I generally like Texans but your government is wack. Also the property taxes are pretty insane so I wouldn’t exactly say you have no tax burden there.
You aren’t wrong about prejudice towards southerners in blue states though. Sorry you had to deal with that.
No disagreement about the wack government. I'm not big on the conservative christian bits, but I respect those people's beliefs and their right to hold those beliefs, no matter how much I may personally disagree on some fundamental aspects of those beliefs. I find that most people, even most of those people, are willing to be kind, respectful, and accepting of others who treat them with the same kindness, respect, and acceptance... even if you don't personally accept every idea they believe. To your point, though, I wouldn't object to a little bit less of the conservative Christian stuff in my state government, all else equal.
I'm a renter, property taxes are baked into my rent. I live in an exceedingly safe and quiet area, a high income, low crime primarily suburban zip code. This isn't a discrimination thing, this is part of how I've learned to cope with feelings that I struggled with after being the victim of a traumatic, violent, and unprovoked attack I experienced a few years ago in a less safe environment. I have an attached fully enclosed garage in a townhouse-style apartment where I have nobody above or below me, and I pay less in rent for that than I paid for a condo-style apartment in a rough part of town in the cheaper southern side of the front range.
My (rent + state income taxes) in CO were about $2400/mo more expensive than my (rent + property taxes) here in TX, and that was living in a place with 6x as much violent crime per capita. To get somewhere as safe in CO as I am here in TX would've been even more expensive.
For as many downsides as you point out, there is still a lot to be said about the power of the market efficiencies made possible through the lax regulatory and pro-business environment that Texas has produced for itself.
As for your assumption, I absolutely understand the frustration with the changes to medical care laws down here, but that doesn't affect my partner or I, as neither of us are engaging in any kind of activity that could ever get either of us pregnant, so the question of medical care in the event one of us ever did get pregnant is functionally moot for us.
I generally like Texans but your government is wack. Also the property taxes are pretty insane so I wouldn’t exactly say you have no tax burden there.
You aren’t wrong about prejudice towards southerners in blue states though. Sorry you had to deal with that.