I seriously considered retiring to West Texas--I was looking at Alpine--it is a beautiful area--and the people are great.

But--in the end I decided no go.

Reasons:

--It is very close to the Mexican border (a hundred miles), and we noticed while visiting Big Bend that it was very easy for illegals to walk across the Rio Grande when it was dry, and the area would be impossible to control. That could mean that with any significant weakening of local government, there could be criminals loose in the area. It is a little known fact that in World War I Mexico occupied part of that area of Texas, and it took quite a while for the feds to show up and kick them out of the area.
--Real estates taxes in Texas. While the state has no income tax (so far), the real estate tax is high because of equalized school taxes in the state. A look at the demographic trends indicated that those taxes would continue to go up very significantly over the rest of our lifetime. For elderly folks real estate taxes are a big part of the expense equation, and it does not make sense to knowingly have that major expense with no upper limit.

Replies: @VinnyVette, @SwissArmyMan, @Anon

Thanks for that info about Juarez....lived in El Paso in that time frame. Taught in a gang-land HS, glad to get the heck out a year later. Supposedly Juarez is now one of the most dangerous cities on Earth.

Memo to Freddy boy--if you actually lived in the US instead of choosing to disavow your country moving to Guadalajara with other "ex-pats" you'd have a lot more credibility than you do these days. And you mention "fly over country"...you do know that "fly over country" including my area in far west Texas (not El Paso) is likely the sanest regions of the country, or any other country for that matter. Heck we even have some lefties out here (white, of course...artsy-fartsy types)...but fortunately these lefties are sane, and us Anglos get along with Hispanics just fine.

Replies: @SwissArmyMan

I suspect you are correct with regards to agricultural productivity. All of the doom and gloom with regards to food prodution since 1968 has turned out completely wrong. Agricultural productivity keeps increasing even in places like China.

Wait until Europeans figure out how to get plants to draw nitrogen from the air instead of from the ground. air is mostly nitrogen. the ideal crop fertilizer is all around us.
 

Nitrogen fixation is also the first step to SF-style biotech food factories.

Replies: @SwissArmyMan

Replies: @SwissArmyMan

Replies: @SwissArmyMan