Battle Of The Titans: CA vs TX

Having lived in Texas for 22 years, then California for 7, and back to Texas for an extended visit, it's difficult to say which state is better. It's always seemed to me that they're competing.

Stats: CA has the 2nd largest population and is the 3rd biggest state. TX is the 2nd biggest with the 3rd largest population.

Climate: CA easily wins. TX has about 6 weeks of temperate weather a year TOTAL, Summer lasts 5 months and can remain 100+ degrees for 100+ days, and the humidity is similar to a sauna 10 minutes after the last guy left.

Culture: Again- CA. TX culture has always seemed either redneck (ie- the gun shows that occur each and every weekend), a bland attempt at NOT being redneck, or absent in general. Its only exceptions are Austin as a whole and the downtown areas of its larger cities. In CA, culture can be found at almost every street corner.

Sports: TX. Let's face it, CA has basketball and not much else. TX has that, football, baseball, hockey, etc. TX is INSANE about its sports.
Seriously... I-N-S-A-N-E.

Cost of Living: TX again. Everything's cheaper- gas, food (except fruits), housing, utilities, insurance (I switched to TX on mine and am paying exactly 60% what I was in CA for the same coverages), even medical and vet bills. I got Fred her bordetello shot in TX and it cost 53% what the chain branch in Sacto charged.

Food: "Everything's biggest in TX." Better too for the most part. Don't get me wrong, I already miss several eateries in CA. But TX has larger portions, believes meat can be the ENTIRE meal, and does Mexican better than Mexico. CA is still champ at sushi, but TX is getting better at that.

Health: CA wins this one. That quote from the Food section doesn't just apply to food. TX is the state with the most overweight people in it. I can believe it too. In CA, people jog, exercise, are outdoors for more than simply walking to your car. In TX, people give me looks of incredulity as I walk my dog at night. I can honestly say that 80% of the people I've seen here are in a medical need of a diet. Smoking is also allowed in TX- nearly everywhere. That, more than anything, is the biggest shock. Coming from CA where public smoking is only years away from being an arrestable offense, it is severely boggling that all restaurants in TX seem to still have smoking sections.

Employment: D'uh- CA loses. CA is host to a goodly percentage of the bottom 20% of the nation's highest metropolitan areas of joblessness, including #1- El Centro, CA with its 34% unemployment.

Trash: Despite its catch-phrase "Don't Mess With Texas", Texas is covered with litter. Most of it seems to be beverage containers. This could be due to the fact that TX doesn't privatize their recycling like CA does. In TX, all recyclables are collected by the cities who get the money for recycling those themselves. The only exception is aluminum but it goes for 1/3rd the amount you get for it in CA. Basically, there's no cash incentive in TX to recycle so not enough people do.
So CA wins this one.


So it seems pretty evenly tied.
Whatcha think?