Education
As Americans traditionally have almost no paid vacations, they are quick to send their children to school or nursery. At this stage, the public school system takes care of the little ones, but from an early age they can also be catered for by numerous private schools. Since the 1980s, the public education system has deteriorated, and today it's generally better to put your child in a private school if you want to ensure a good education. So, much more than elsewhere, access to education is not the same for all, and this system separates the poorest from the richest. What we also see in Texas, as in many southern states, is the presence of private religious schools, both Catholic and Protestant. Don't be surprised by this, it's normal. When it comes to higher education, local Texans can take advantage of lower tuition fees for Texas universities. For example, for the University of Texas, a Texan will pay $11,752USD per year instead of almost $50,000USD. These figures may seem absurd, but university entrance is very expensive in the USA, with some of the top schools reaching $70,000USD. This system excludes thousands of students nationwide from the school system every year. Every family that can afford it borrows, and the young person repays when he or she starts work, i.e., enters the workforce in debt. School-leaving salaries are often considered higher than in France, but loan repayments must be taken into account. Americans call the first four years of college "high school " and the first four years of university " college". After that, you can go on to graduate school, which might currently correspond to the training required to acquire a Master 2. Today, 90% of high school students graduate from high school. Texas' top universities are Rice University, Baylor University, University of Houston and University of Texas at Austin, attracting thousands of Americans from all over the country.
Daily life style
The car is at the heart of everyday life, and is the most common means of transport. It's how we get to the supermarket, the restaurant, the bank, the post office, with some establishments transformed into ' drive-thru' facilities, meaning that we don't even have to leave the wheel to send mail. Given that you can get your driver's license at a very young age, it's also in or through the car that young teenagers entertain themselves. In Texas, the climate demands perpetual air conditioning, sometimes to excess. Don't be surprised to find yourself shivering in a restaurant when it's 38°C outside. A great deal of attention is paid to interior spaces rather than exterior ones, as inhabitants are constantly moving between enclosed spaces: the home, the car, and the destination. In terms of sustenance, it's easier to feast than to eat well, i.e. to eat healthy, wholesome food. The poorer classes suffer from this, with quite severe obesity rates. Most of the time, this lack of access to good food is compensated for by intensive sports activities.
Leisure and consumption
Consumer society obliges, it is through consumption that people spend their free time, between cinemas, bars, gym, yoga, tex-mex, bowling, rodeos, etc. Consumption of food or consumption of entertainment, there is not really a public space without consumption, except maybe the parks and green spaces. The street itself is not a place of pastime, often more present architecturally in the city centers, where there is a greater concentration of homeless people. Thus, restaurants are a very common place of frequentation, as it is even more usual to eat outside than to cook at home. A middle-class couple in Houston, for example, will easily go to a restaurant three or more times a week. Texans are also big sports fans. Soccer, basketball and baseball teams draw large crowds.
Birth
Texas has one of the highest birth rates among young teenage women, with 22.4 births per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 19. Many experts who have studied the subject believe that this phenomenon is a direct consequence of the Texas state's policy on access to contraceptives, which some conservatives believe should be banned. Here, more than anywhere else, parental consent is required for contraception. Sexual abstinence campaigns in public schools are showing their limits, especially since the Supreme Court's reversal of Roe v. Wade, which previously guaranteed the right to abortion, is likely to boost the teenage birth rate. Conversely, New Mexico has retained abortion as a right, although the number of abortion clinics has declined.
Social Protection
Welfare is the responsibility of the federal government. Welfare budgets vary considerably from one government to another. Because welfare allows "the most disadvantaged to remain in the status of perpetual assistance", the welfare system was dismantled under President Bill Clinton, who was "more in favor of employment than assistance". The fact that one cannot exist without the other is a very American mentality, where work is sacred and anyone who doesn't work is frowned upon, making times of crisis all the more difficult. George Bush had accelerated this work of reducing social protection, while Obama had taken the opposite path with "Obamacare" in 2012. The state of Texas is still not in favor of Welfare, which is seen as a generator of laziness and passivity. Donald Trump confirmed his willingness to repeal Obamacare during his campaign, unlike his successor Joe Biden, Obama's former vice-president. Very different from France, Social Security nevertheless exists, but concerns more specific categories of the population. There is Medicare for the over-65s and the disabled, and Medicaid for the indigent. Other Americans must subscribe to private medical insurance plans paid for out of their salaries. It should be noted that social security is called welfare, whereas social security corresponds to pensions.
Military service and patriotism
Since the end of the Vietnam War, the army has been an all-volunteer force. No one can be forced to enlist. The case of the famous boxer Mohammed Ali, who was imprisoned for refusing to fight away from home during the war, made a deep impression on public opinion. That said, unlike in France, the military is highly regarded by Americans, and even enjoys an almost sacred social status. All the more so as American patriotism is extremely strong in the U.S., where it's a common occurrence for schoolchildren to be obliged to sing the national anthem in the morning, putting their hands on their chests as a sign of respect. As a form of anti-racist protest, some sports celebrities have pledged to refuse this military and patriotic salute at the start of televised matches, to symbolically denounce the country's demand for freedom for all. This act is highly provocative, as having anti-American feelings is almost seen as a crime. For those who have done military service, free university tuition is available, attracting many young people looking to continue their education. In Texas, recruitment campaigns are launched among high school students or young people looking for a financially stable future. Many young Americans who left to fight in Iraq were both students and military professionals. So it should come as no surprise to see soldiers in uniform sitting on the benches of American campuses. As of 2011, 4,474 American soldiers have lost their lives on Iraqi soil since the invasion in 2003. Just over 400 of them were from Texas. Obama successfully withdrew American troops from Iraq in 2011, followed by Afghanistan in 2014. Trump, meanwhile, launched a military operation against a Syrian airbase on the night of April 6-7, 2017, following Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons attack on a town in northwest Syria. Since then, Joe Biden has withdrawn U.S. troops from Afghanistan as a result of the Taliban takeover, outraging many Republican Americans. And since February 2022, Biden has been denouncing Putin and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, positioning himself militarily in support of the Ukrainian government. Ukrainian President Zelensky visited the White House in December 2022.
Retirement and Old Age
Texans' pensions are minimal. It's better to have saved throughout one's working life, and even invested in profitable sectors. Funded retirement is commonplace throughout the country. One of the most famous retirement plans is the 401K, which takes the monthly payments of millions of American employees and places them in investment funds for redistribution once the employees have retired. In rural Texas, the tradition of taking care of one's elderly parents persists, an attitude more common in the South than in the northern states. There are also private retirement homes for people at the end of their lives.
