Alabama becoming a serious competitor now? (Atlanta, Savannah: house, unemployed, school)

[MathmanMathman]

Some GT people told me years ago that Alabama's incentives to Mercedes weren't worth it for them. But over the years, Mercedes has greatly helped their image. Now Alabama has Honda, Toyota, and Hyundai.

And now they have another major coup...Airbus.

Airbus to build 1st US assembly plant in Alabama *| ajc.com

And South Carolina has scored with Boeing and BMW. How long before our neighbors catch up to Georgia and Atlanta?

[StAubin]

Alabama has always been more industrial. We are a commerce center and will alway be the commerce and logistics center of the south.

[rorqual]

Nothing to be worried about - Alabama lures manufacturing and assembly jobs from these car makers, not the design and R&D which requires more intellectual talent.

[Newsboy]

The main reason Kia decided to build its plant in West Point was the close proximity to unemployed blue collar textile mill workers right across the state line in Alabama. I agree that Georgia could and should be competitive in luring these large manufacturers, but there are downsides as well. Besides, we already have some pretty big players. Gulfstream is expanding in Savannah and the new caterpillar plant in Athens is nothing to sneeze at.

BUT THE MAIN THING TO REMEMBER IS THIS: Georgia is home to 15 Fortune 500 HQs. Alabama and South Carolina only have 1 each.

[Atlwarrior]

I think Atlanta is stronger if any companies go to our neighboring states, I guarantee because of our interstates and airport. Atlanta still benefits even when neighboring states economy expands.

[cqholt]

Alabama spends a lot of money on luring these companies and it doesn't always pay off. In my parents town of Florence, AL the Retirement System of Alabama, the state employees retire fund, built a 1 mile long building along the Tennessee River for a rail car company from Canada. But as the recession hit and the Canadian rail car company backed out the RSA is now stuck with an empty 1-mile long building that they spent hundreds of millions to build and upgrade infrastructure. RSA makes a lot of money from the Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, but spends a lot luring these companies to AL.

[Galounger]

@#$%^!!!! I can't for the life of me understand why Georgia keeps missing all these opportunities to our neighbors over the past couple decades!!! Yeah some people are downplaying the significance of this because of the incentives these states offer but in the end it all comes down to jobs and income... Good paying Jobs.

Airbus !? Georgia is the state with the long aerospace manufacturing history and transport equipment industry in general and Georgia Tech the Souths premier engineering school but despite our leaders supposedly courting international business big time now we just keep missing out.

In the past couple decades Georgia has managed to lure Kia and Hyundai Heavy Equipment (Daimler was perched to build in Savannah but last minute change due to bad economy) Meanwhile our neighbors have snagged operations from Mercedes, BMW, Honda, Volkswagen, Hyundai automotive, Kia, Nissan and now Airbus.

[Galounger]

Originally Posted by Newsboy

The main reason Kia decided to build its plant in West Point was the close proximity to unemployed blue collar textile mill workers right across the state line in Alabama. I agree that Georgia could and should be competitive in luring these large manufacturers, but there are downsides as well. Besides, we already have some pretty big players. Gulfstream is expanding in Savannah and the new caterpillar plant in Athens is nothing to sneeze at.

BUT THE MAIN THING TO REMEMBER IS THIS: Georgia is home to 15 Fortune 500 HQs. Alabama and South Carolina only have 1 each.

Little consolation to people in engineering and technology like my self. Engineering jobs are located where the manufacturing is not in corporate offices away from factories. Georgia really needs more technical jobs also because they tend to be more high income and workers with technical know how makes an economy more competitive globally.

For mechanical engineers Atlanta offers a bunch of corporate offices that mostly house salesmen and bean counters. The offices that contain the engineers making technical things happen are in places like Ann Arbor, Marysville Ohio, Georgetown, Kentucky and elsewhere.

[Onthemove2014]

This is why people are choosing Birmingham over Atlanta. Look at all those jobs.

[cqholt]

This is why people are choosing Birmingham over Atlanta. Look at all those jobs.

Will you please move to Birmingham and get outta Atlanta? All you do is hate on Atlanta.