Arkansas Blog

We must hold on to and build on the state's manufacturing base

WHAT? We need to move ourselves into the global knowledge economy. Admittedly, there are a lot of knowledge workers in any manufacturing business... engineering, finance, IT, etc.... but that is not who we are talking about here.

The jobs on the manufacturing line are growing more and more complex, however, so they pay more, but at the end of the day factory wages are in a world-wide race to the bottom.

We ought to spend that $50M by giving 5000 computer geeks $10,000 each to move here. If they make a conservative $100K each, they'll pay that much back in taxes the first year alone. Not to mention any small businesses that emerge.

I know it is heresy to suggest that just because farms and factories were good enough for Grandad they may not be good enough for us.

But rural Arkansas ought to realize that a well-educated workforce can now work from anywhere. They might be from Pakistan, from Paris, or from Paron.

))))))))))))Yawn(((((((((((((((

Wow, our nominee sure is exciting and inspiring.

I just watched an Inconvenient Truth. Will Beebe support a $2,000 state income tax credit for the purchase of a hybrid car?

Quick action Beebe's buddies slush fund is more like it.

Roland, I agree with the overall approach but there are a lot of people in
this state who never went to college and who still have 20-40 or more years of productive life left. This is the group that should be the ones that we work to get high-paying jobs for now. The new graduates will follow the money once the opportunity exists. As one who left the state after college because of the lack of jobs in his area (I ended up in MS first), colege trained people are increasingly leaving their "home area" for opportunity.

If we don't work to get jobs for these people, we will be paying to help support them for the rest of their lives.

My son had a manufacturing company that he started and which didn't make it. It did last 3 years and came up with a product that was honored as product of the year for the industry in the trade publi-cation. The manufacturers who were the customer base would rather continue to replace equipment on an annual basis than go for a long term fix that tied them to a locale. He said that his next company will be computer based so he could put the assets in his pocket and go elsewhere if he wished. And that's the problem with having a high tech knowledge based employer- they can always move to another area.

While hands-on service jobs will always be there, the history is that manufacturing jobs are what built this country's middle class and that is what our country's management, both parties, are willing to toss away. There has to be a better way and innovative manufacturing based on close contact with the customer base would seem the way to go. Companies that make speciality equipment on a one-on-one basis and can deliver on a timely basis will be able to out deliver over a foreign source.

Commody manfacturing will always go to the lowest cost site as long as there are company officers who look at the short term impact on income and their bonuses and fail to realize that when the kill the jobs, they are also killing their customer basis.

I think Lee Scott of Wal-Mart is beginning to see what happens when consumer costs expand faster than income. No income or reduced available income due to increasing gasoline costs-fewer customers or customers who have reduced capability to purchase. You get enough of these and it doesn't matter how cheap the stove or bicycle or shirt is. If it sits on the shelf, everyone loses. The only problem is the one who loses last is the store, long after the customers have been hurt.

"We ought to spend that $50M by giving 5000 computer geeks $10,000 each to move here. . . But rural Arkansas ought to realize that a well-educated workforce can now work from anywhere".

I put these two points together, because my response is tied to both. Rather than encouraging already educated computer geeks to relocate here, why not improve our educational system to produce those 5000 computer geeks (as well as a proportionate number of teachers, scientists, doctors, engineers, economists, architects, musicians, artists, etc.) from the population already in residence?

Lack of a top-ranked educational system is also one of the major drawbacks of this State as a place to relocate. If that well-educated workforce can truly work from anywhere, then why move to a place where those worker's children cannot receive the education needed to someday join that upper-level workforce? $10,000 might entice a few to relocate initially, but it will not be enough to keep them here for very long.

And let's be honest, the lifestyle of most well-educated computer geeks does not exactly fit the normal Arkansas Baptist profile. Which, incidentally, is another shortfall that an improved educational system would help to combat by greatly reducing the level of ignorance in the general populace.

We need the car plants. The first step is getting rid of the state income tax. These manufacturers go to Texas & Tennessee and they have no income tax.

Tax incentives is the only way to get plants in here and thus, new, high pay jobs.

Its touch to attract people and business when you also stand for lots of taxes.

I do not envy Beebe.

So Mike "i never met a tax I didn't wanna raise" Beebe is now talking about making Arkansas business-friendly?

A little late for that talk, Mike. Your taxing us to death while a Senator for 20 years got us into this mess.

Your "solutions" caused the problem. We can't afford any more of your good ideas, Mike.

Graduates struggle to repay their college loans. Better employed in India than unemployed in Arkansas.

--Argumentum ad Crumenam.

Governor Asa Hutchinson will bring in the plants. Republican values and tax cuts look good to the big plant people. Democrats want to raise taxes on the type of people that it takes to run these plants. If they can save 7% by putting plants in NO INCOME TAX states they will and we will be left out. Vote "R" all the way.

I see your filter didn't stop the inane Anonymous posts.

Hope he can do some good in bringing new jobs. Sounds like the normal line though.

In the last couple of sessions we have done our best to make ourselves less atractive to new business. the 1% sales tax increase, the hike in min wage (even if you suport the hike you have to understand that our wage is higher than any state that borders Arkansas), and the stupidest of all the no smoking law.

The post that asks that we drop the state income tax is laughable. Where will the money come from? Higher sales tax that will hurt people who spend all of there money on needs already? It takes money to run the state and an income tax is the best way to get the ones who make the most pay the most.

I heard a speech that Beebe gave a while back where he stated that most new jobs in Arkansas came from established business's. Makes sense, almost a "here's your sign" comment. But we would be well served to gear our efforts towards supporting a company that will create new jobs through growth. We have done a very poor job of doing that and I fail to understand why a new company would move to Arkansas when we have such a sorry track record.

While we're placing orders for car plants could we shoot for a hybrid car plant? Or maybe a buggy whip plant.

Fed Up To Here and Vernal,

I couldn't agree more about the need for a better educational system that will attract both businesses and those workers who can work from anywhere.

I was basing my post on my own experience. I too left the state after college to follow the money. I moved back because I was able to work from anywhere and my wife wanted to be closer to family.

But my daughter's education was a BIG concern. It was the primary factor in deciding where we would live in Arkansas.

Our current system keeps us out of the running for the really great businesses. I just saw that Google has expanded their operations to some state in the Midwest (I'm too lazy to Google it, ha). They only hire the brightest and best educated people. It's sad we can't get in the running.

Tax breaks? Worthless.
World-class educational system? Priceless.

I agree with those that think that the educational system needs to be better. Maybe getting the people that insist on not teaching evolution and the age of rocks off the school boards would go a long way toward that.