Arkansas Blog

"...Mississippi has lower labor
costs than Arkansas (low as
ours are)"

Is it correct that the workers at the Toyota plant and other Asian plants aren't UAW members? If so, how can US auto makers possibly compete as long as nearly half the cost of a Ford or Chevy goes to worker benefits the Asians don't have to pay?

We continue to obsess over getting some mega-project in this state. More economic development would be achieved by looking at the skills that be can applied throughout the state, rather in any one concentrated area.

Attracting super-projects seems to be a reverse (or perverse) prostitution of the state - "we'll pay you anything, if you'll just take advantage of us." The cost-benefit analyses of these pimp-a-thons are dubious at best.

The most-mentioned sites - Marion and West Memphis - would benefit Tennessee and Mississippi as much, if not MORE than Arkansas, ...with Arkansas footing the bill. Why doesn't Arkansas hire people who really know how to develop the economy for the whole state? The dunces who are currently (not) doing the job for Arkansas are stuck in the past, trying to sell Arkansas workers as cheap labor.

We need to look at the trends in America - mobility, aging, internet access, increased need for health care and services rather than manufactured goods. As far as manufacturing, the one growth industry we may be able to keep domestically is going to be related to the environment, pollution control, and conservation.

An example: Bring Arkansas nursing home and independent living facilities up to the highest possible standards. Increase the number of health care personnel and facilities - distributed around the state. As the population ages, especially in the colder states, there will be more interest to migrate to states like Arkansas ... if they are assured of quality care.

Of course, they will want the amenities they enjoyed "up north." One of those things will be access to the internet. The state needs to embark on an aggressive program to bring high-speed internet to all reaches of the state (as Georgia and other rural states have done). That will stimulate local entrepreneurs as well as keep potential immigrants (from the north) in touch with their world.

While we are waiting for the influx of yankees, a strange side-benefit could occur increasing the emphasis upon health care. Increased access to health care for Arkansas citizens could improve the health of our citizens and their productivity. More school nurses could improve the ability of students in our schools to learn. (How productive can you be, how well can you concentrate when you are sick or malnourished, or have some undiagnosed condition?)

Rural Arkansas is dying, and the state of Arkansas is going to die, if we continue to focus on buggy whips instead of the future.

Let's hope the new ADED director Marie Haley or someone at the gubna's office start getting rid of some of the dead wood at the Economic Development Department.
Most of those same folks has been there since Jim Pickens and Barbara Pardue.
It is time to clean house over thar!

I think maybe there is a lesson to learn from this Toyota-Mississippi thing. If you stand back and look at the big picture you'll see that since NAFTA was cooked up by the George H.W. Bush administration and signed into law by Bill Clinton, our jobs have been flying away like migrating geese.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that it makes good business sense to make your widgets in a country where you can pay 5 bucks a day instead of 15 bucks an hour or even 5 bucks an hour.

It gives old rich white guys a woodie to think of building their crap in a country without paying for health care or insurance or retirement for the workers.

So actually any US company that doesn't have a plan to pick up and move to a 3rd world country is stupid. The US Government has provided a yellow brick road to 3rd world countries for them....and they're fools if they don't take it.

Mississippi has outsmarted us by being more 3rd world-like than we are. That's right! Being 49th has worked against us in yet another way. I've been beating a dead horse trying to get us to move up to 47 when this Toyota deal makes it appear we'd be better off shooting for 50th.

It very well could explain why Huckabee was always making out that we were a banana republic and dating our own sisters......his were code words to Toyota.

Arkansas could kick a fat hog in the butt by going backwards instead of forwards. When we sink to the same level as Mexico, the jobs will come flooding into the state!

Making sure a segment of the population only makes $2.62 an hour is a great start! Next we need to start breeding burros and learning how to shit in the street! Toyota Here We Come!

You have to wonder about all of this just a little. According to the Stephens bunch this morning - "It looked like it was Marion, Marion, Marion, and it changed, we think, on Tuesday or Wednesday of last week," Randle said.

So, how does Arkansas go about solidifying its position?

Step 1. - How about dumping the current Dir of ADED, a guy who has been over to Japan to actually visit and build a relationship with them, right as the critical decision making is obviously going on. Interesting message to a group of folks who build business on relationships first and foremost.

Step 2. How about hiring a lady to run ADED, a lady who never makes one single call to the incoming folks, never meets with them, and right in the middle of critical negotiations, takes off for a little personal time to handle her move from DC to LR. Yeah, that couldn't wait for a week or so. Nice message to folks who build business on relationships first and foremost.

Step 3. Take the aforementioned dumped ADED director and put him on vacation so that he isn't even available to work on the deal, even though he has been integral to the negotiations since the last plant went to Texas. Nice message to folks to build business on relationships first and foremost. Do these three steps and one nice result is the quotation presented in the opening above.

If the goal is to clean house of all old Huckabites, fine and dandy. But to fire the fireman as he is fighting a fire at your place isn't the smartest decision in the world. Especially if you give the replacement fireman time off to move furniture at the same time you send your current fireman packing and at the same time your house is on fire.

It's time to start boycotting Toyota products.

Yes, it is difficult for the American car makers to compete against foreign competitors, when the foreign car companies get huge tax breaks to build here. Then through the magic of accounting, they show 0 profits on their American operations (i.e. inflate part prices).

Of course its easier for the foreign companies to compete when they don't have to pay bloated salaries, health care benefits, and pensions to UAW's. They also tend to have a younger employees on average with leaner benefits and minimal pension expenses.