Why Toyota chose Canada over Alabama/Mississippi.

[Flying_Mollusk]

People like to talk about trickle down economics and taxes being so bad. But guess what? Canada's investment in education and its universal health care system trickled down to this whereas Alabama and Mississippi still hate taxes and still have serious poverty problems. If anything, its proof that you just cant simplify economic development into simple axioms.

 

(From the diaries. More evidence that an educated workforce and government-subsidized health care are the best forms of economic development -- kos)

 

They got a $125 Million is subsidies from the Canadians. But that wasn't what sealed the deal, because several southern states offered nearly double the subsidies. What sealed the deal was the quality of education that their potential workers in Canada possesed.

 

The extra subsidies offered by the U.S. state would have been eaten up by the need to train and educate the workers in those states to the standards of a modern mechanized and digitized automobile plant. CBC news reports:

 

The factory will cost $800 million to build, with the federal and provincial governments kicking in $125 million of that to help cover research, training and infrastructure costs.

 

Several U.S. states were reportedly prepared to offer more than double that amount of subsidy. But Fedchun said much of that extra money would have been eaten away by higher training costs than are necessary for the Woodstock project.

 

He said Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment.

 

"The educational level and the skill level of the people down there is so much lower than it is in Ontario," Fedchun said.

 

It's ironic that those southern states were willing to fork over the money to get the plant, but not to spend the same money to raise the educational standards in their schools. It's a classic penny-wise, pound-foolish approach.

 

But what about a northern state with better education. Well too bad northern states, you also are being "penny-wise and pound-foolish".

 

Only now it's health care that is a show stopper:

 

In addition to lower training costs, Canadian workers are also $4 to $5 cheaper to employ partly thanks to the taxpayer-funded health-care system in Canada, said federal Industry Minister David Emmerson.

 

"Most people don't think of our health-care system as being a competitive advantage," he said.

 

Tanguay said Toyota's decision on where to build its seventh North American plant was "not only about money."

 

"It's about being in the right place," he said, noting the company can rely on the expertise of experienced Cambridge workers to help get Woodstock up and running.

 

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/7/8/195036/3146

[Guest Fritz]

In addition to lower training costs, Canadian workers are also $4 to $5 cheaper to employ partly thanks to the taxpayer-funded health-care system in Canada, said federal Industry Minister David Emmerson.

 

The only sentence in the whole thing that actually means anything.

[Hotcorner]

well it was Alabama and Mississippi they were talking about.... I mean they really don't even have schools down there yet, do they? :shifty

[FIUMarlinfan]

Do churches count as learning institutions hotcorner?lol

[cgator]

well it was Alabama and Mississippi they were talking about.... I mean they really don't even have schools down there yet, do they? :shifty

849093[/snapback]

Of course, Florida's education system is sandwiched between those two states. Guess we will not be seeing any Toyota operations here either.

[bakercolonelreb]

well it was Alabama and Mississippi they were talking about.... I mean they really don't even have schools down there yet, do they? :shifty

849093[/snapback]

Interestingly enough, I believe Nissan has a plant in Mississippi (thus throwing out the schools idea). To further prove my point (of disproving your education remark), Smyrna, TN has a Nissan plant. Tennessee isn't high on the list in education. Spartanburg, SC has a BMW plant. Once again, all three of these states have low scores in education, yet all can handle automobile plants.

[Hotcorner]

Oh c'mon, only teasing BakerReb....

 

and yeah Gator, Florida's not exactly at the top of the list either... lol

[bakercolonelreb]

fair enough, hotcorner. My bad.

[Rapp/Laettnerfanatic]

YES, Nissan has a plant in canton,MS. and no are education system is not as horrible as everyone thinks. You people are so ignorant to the state of MS. All you idots know of the state is what sterotypes that are so played out in movies.

[bakercolonelreb]

That is true. It's the truest sense of the word prejudice. Prejudice...aka prejudging. Which is what people do all the time to states such as Mississippi.

 

People sh*t their pants if someone makes an openly prejudice comment about black folk, but if someone makes a prejudice remark about a Mississippi citizen, then it's followed with a :lol .

 

Interesting.

[legacyofCangelosi]

In addition to lower training costs, Canadian workers are also $4 to $5 cheaper to employ partly thanks to the taxpayer-funded health-care system in Canada, said federal Industry Minister David Emmerson.

 

The only sentence in the whole thing that actually means anything.

847583[/snapback]

 

Thank you Fritz for saving me from having to argue. The US spends more on education as a percentage of our GDP than Canada does. Its just that our bureaucracy is poorly run and inefficient. More money int oeducation doesnt mean squat if yo ucant run the program. I sure rather pay workers less too. Good pick Toyota :thumbup

[FIUMarlinfan]

Im sure the state of MS is an expert in the field of prejudice.

[bakercolonelreb]

thank you for furthering my point

[legacyofCangelosi]

thank you for furthering my point

853817[/snapback]

 

Theres certain things that aren't worth arguing, and this is one of them. There is some type of elitist movement to discredit the south and Southerners in general. They paint the south to be an area of uneducated, racist, religious fanatics. The sad part is most of these elitists know nothing about any of the southern states or their histories.

[bakercolonelreb]

thank you for furthering my point

853817[/snapback]

 

Theres certain things that aren't worth arguing, and this is one of them. There is some type of elitist movement to discredit the south and Southerners in general. They paint the south to be an area of uneducated, racist, religious fanatics. The sad part is most of these elitists know nothing about any of the southern states or their histories.

853876[/snapback]

true. Sorry about the interruption. Back to talk ove Canada and Toyota.

[Shaq-Man]

something tells me that alabama's and mississippi's education and poverty problems pale in comparison to those of tijuana, mexico--site of toyota's newest plant.

 

if we decided to expand NAFTA to somalia and it were somehow cheaper to build cars there and ship them here, you could bet that your next corolla would have "toyota motors of mogadishu" stamped on it somewhere.