'berto, yakno what they say about people in glass houses casting stones, right?

Seems like a quick search of references regarding slavery in Oz [en.wikipedia.org] shows you cats were practicing slave and slave-like practices far after we Texans had freed our slaves after the Revolutionary War. Convicts, Aborigines and Coolies ring any bells?

Secondly, I always find it interesting when folks 1/2 a world away claim to know all about us, our lifestyle and culture when the reality is they know nothing but BS.

Early Texians, as settlers to the then Mexican owned lands were called, lived and worked alongside the Mexicans you seem to want to call our slaves. In fact, when the Texians declared their independence from Mexico many in the Texian Army were indeed Mexicans themselves who fought as equals with the Texians against their own home country.

As was the case before the war w/Mexico, and to this day, the Texas and Mexican cultures have always intermingled. There's plenty of towns here with Mexican names and having lived here for 66yrs now I've never heard a peep about that either.

What I expect you were alluding to as us having Mexicans as slaves is how some unscrupulous people have been known to pay illegal immigrant Mexicans less than what others make for the same work. Though in my entire working career I've never worked for anyone that did so, I still know that yes, it's happened. I also know that sometimes Mexicans business owners themselves do this to other Mexicans, just like the Mexican Coyotes are well known to reap huge profits from illegal immigrants they help cross into Texas, some even get sold to sex trafficers, which is damned sure the worst kind of slavery, something they do to their own countrymen and women, but I digress ...

The reality still remains that Mexicans, even the illegal ones here, get paid for their labor so your claim they are slaves is complete bullshit.

It's also common knowledge that large groups of male illegals are known to rent houses and sometimes will trade cooking, cleaning and even sexual performance by female illegals in exchange for their food and lodging. BTW, THEY freely choose where and how they live.

Of course Texas has oil, lots of it, and natural gas as well, which greatly adds to our GDP as a state. We also have a thriving tech industry, are home to countless national as well as international corporations, and yeah, there's a lot of crops grown here too.

Texas has been a favorite destination for a myriad of companies and enterprises for decades, with companies constantly relocating here. Our lack of a state income tax, business friendly regulatory systems and lower costs for housing as well as a lower cost of living in general when compared to many other places are huge draws. Hell, just the Dallas/Ft Worth area alone has seen a steady stream of 30,000 new folks a month for many decades now.

Lastly, for all the reasons mentioned above, and not slavery as you claim, Texas does indeed have a larger economy and hence a greater GDP than Australia