Arkansas Blog

Bring it on - - Toyota!

We've been teased by auto manufacturers speaking of building plants in Arkansas for about 30 years. Not much to show for it. Always the bride's maid, never the bride. The plants always go to some state with better highways.

A good example: for 50 years they've been building a St. Louis-bound 4-lane from Little Rock to the Missouri line, and it's still only half-way there.

All we can manage to build are additions onto football stadiums and ever-larger basketball arenas and new baseball stadiums.

How can a state like this ever expect to become a major manufacturing center?

D骠 vu.

How many times in the past few years have we heard of an auto maker considering Arkansas? It'll won't happen this time, either.

We'll always be outmanoeuvred by a more flexible neighbor a little more eager for good-paying jobs.

ARK. BLOG: I dunno. For reasons I can't really explain, I think Ark. has a shot. And it's worth spending some taxpayer capital to it. Within limits. But I'd also say it's a little short-sighted to see one auto plant, or even two or three, as the be-all and end-all of state economic and development aims. Auto plants, strange as it might seem, might be the cut-and-sew factories of the late 21st century, gone to emerging economies with equally skilled workers willing to work for far less even than the lower wages that prevail in the non-unionized Japanese plants in America. Just a thought for the out years.

Quality of the state's workforce?

Well, our education is terrible, so we lose.

Don't forget prisons! We don't seem to have any trouble building prisons here in the "Land of Opportunity"

As far as Arkansas is concerned Toyota is like a really really good female bartender. I've seen hole in the wall joints suddenly explode with business, just because the owner hired a gorgeous women who knew the secret of success.

No, success doesn't come because she'll sleep with the customers, it's because she makes the customers THINK she'll sleep with them if they'll just come back over and over and over. Done correctly, it's a beautiful dance that all enjoy.

Apparently Toyota loves playing this same game with Arkansas. Look how our Governor squirms every time the T word is mentioned. Toyota is Viagra for politicians. It keeps them all up at night, trying to figure out how to get in bed with her.

Oh well, it gives them something to do. It keeps hope alive in the Delta. It also points out how generous our state government can be if they're in love with you.

But, watching General Motors long slide to death at the same time here in the western part of the state we are waving goodbye to Whirlpool, makes me wonder if we give up our virginity and all our worldly possessions to win the hand of Toyota, how long will the marriage last?

Sure General Motors is dying because it makes incredibly ugly style-less cars that fall apart before the last payment is made. But you have to wonder why Toyota or any of them want to build a new factory in the South when manufacturing jobs are flying off to hot brown, 3rd world countries?

I'm sure with big enough clubs and sharp sticks, Mexicans can learn to make a Cambry as well as can gut chickens. Why would Toyota want to pay someone 20 bucks an hour when they could pay someone 20 bucks a day in a hot brown country?

I think until we figure out how to stop the flow of American jobs to the 3rd world, no manufacturing job in America is safe.

MS--I doubt you'd be interested, but Google "Crime Rates and Population Aging" and read the Univ of Chicago Journal of Economic Perspectives piece on why crime rates fell dramatically in the 1990s.

4 reasons--one of which was increased number of thugs in prison.

Here's a shocker----a thug in prison is a thug not raping or stealing or murdering anyone (at least, anyone not in prison).

Meditate on that for a spell.

I thought the minimum wage increase sealed our fate on being able to attract new business to the state, regardless of the pay scale of the prospective employees? I wonder if that's a factor in this complex algorithm of Toyota's?

We've recently been rejected in favor of Texas and Canada. At least we now have some competition with stereotypes similar to our own: Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina. I've always believed our public higher education system to be a few notches below that of UVA and UNC, but if the quality of skilled workers is one of the main factors, I'd think we'd have a shot here. At least we consistently make their initial cut.

Rep Harrelson;

I don't believe that Toyota would stay away for lack of baccalaureates. They would initially import most of their management personnel, and OJT them for the future.

They would stay away because the high school grads staffing the lines couldn't read assembly manuals or do simple math problems.

Believe me Toyota ain't paying no one $20 an hour. They are the Wal-Mart of the auto world. The reason why they are putting GM and Ford out of business, besides better cars, is because their overhead is so low. Workers get about 37 hours a week at $10 to $15 an hour and have to wait about three years before they get a full insurance package.
Their cost per car is about $8,000 and $9,000 less than their American counterparts. The only reason they looked at Arkansas is because of the cheap labor and giveaways, but they found that the skill of the labor force is not up to par.

DBI:

Hot, brown third-world country? You're describing the Arkansas Delta to a T.

"They're looking at a complicated algorithm," Mr. Womack said.

Well, as long as they use some kind of rhythm method, they're welcome here in the Natural State! Hope our new, sky-high, socialistic minimum wage doesn't scare them off.

While you are meditating on the Univ of Chicago Journal of Economic Perspectives piece on why crime rates fell; try reading the whole thing instead of select portions of the olde testament.

Understanding Why Crime Fell in the 1990s: Four Factors that Explain the Decline and Six that Do Not by Steven D. Levitt
Six Factors that Played Little or No Role in the Crime Decline
1) The Strong Economy of the 1990s
2) Changing Demographics
3) Better Policing Strategies
4) Gun Control Laws
5) Laws Allowing the Carrying of Concealed Weapons
6) Increased Use of Capital Punishment
Four Factors That Explain the Decline in Crime
1) Increases in the Number of Police
2) The Rising Prison Population
3) The Receding Crack Epidemic
4) The Legalization of Abortion
Reyes (2002) offers an additional intriguing explanation for the decline in crime: the reduction in levels of lead in the blood due to the elimination of leaded gasoline and lead-based paints. Because of the highly speculative nature of the Reyes conjecture at the present time, I do not discuss this hypothesis at greater length, although it is clearly an area worthy of continued future research.

On further reflection, I think we need to look at the new head of Beverly, now called something else, who came to Fort Smith a month or so back and pronounced us backwoods hicks and sister....uh um.......sister-nailers.

Doesn't matter that Beverly is located on the edge of town in a state of the art 6 or 8 year old building in a beautiful setting. The building is so big some locals call it The Death Star. Mr. Asswipe looked around and flew back to California clearly displaying the bird to all of us.

So I'm thinking Toyota is probably more concerned about how nice it will be for upper management to live where the new plant is to be located. They can teach anyone to build their little cars, but Bob Smith and Yuki Ohamamma won't want to live in Hicksville with the wife and kids for the next 11 years before they're kicked upstairs to Yokohama or wherever.

Americans are clearly more interested in a pleasant life surrounded by the goodies their good jobs can provide. Notice how many are busying skiing while Bush-Cheney rape the world? So Bob and Yuki want to drive thru Better Homes & Gardens neighborhoods on their way to work. They want to go to Broadway plays and send Muffy to a top notch private school.

They want to turn off the big screen and roll over for sleep without worrying Bubba is hiding in the bushes with a knife. They want a really nice airport close by. And they want a big gate at the entrance to their neighborhood. Armed guards would be all the better.

These are the reasons Toyota will not be coming to Arkansas...screw the workers, and of course that is the new motto of the world..SCREW THE WORKERS.

Huckster could hire Toll Brothers to come build an upper management oases in the greenest part of the Delta and that might help...but it would be a big roll of the dice.

Did I misread, or isn't the increase in the number of people in the slammer one of four reasons for the decline in crime?

George didn't say it was the ONLY REASON---but, dude, it was one of them. So, quit bitching about the no of people in prison.

As Martha would say, "its a good thing".

About half of those people in prison are there for non-violent drug crimes. NON-VIOLENT.

If drugs weren't illegal, then they wouldn't have committed a crime.

So, families being broken up for non-violent drug "crimes" is a good thing to some of you?

Sad commentary.

Great article, that was interesting

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