Posted on 02/18/2018 10:59:48 PM PST by blam
Alabama beats California — and no, I’m not talking about college football.
Many Californians would bristle at the notion of being bested by Alabama. But employers aren’t so picky: Toyota and Mazda announced recently they’ll invest north of $1.6 billion dollars to build a new factory and create over 4,000 good-paying jobs in Limestone County, Alabama. This only increases the state’s vehicle production: In 2016, Alabama assembled over one million vehicles employing over 40,000 employees.
Fifteen states were competing for the Toyota-Mazda joint venture; California was not even on the bench. Perhaps Toyota remembers its experience with GM at New United Motor Manufacturing in Fremont, where the United Auto Workers union helped shut down the plant in 2010. Today, California is home to just one automaker, Tesla — and yet some the state’s representatives seem more interested in encouraging a union organizing driving at the plant rather than encouraging the company’s continued success.
California has a well-earned reputation of being business unfriendly, and according to one analysis has lost over 1,700 companies in the past decade. It really is not difficult to figure out why, given that we have some of the highest minimum wages, tax rates, and workers compensation rates in the nation. Our state’s workers compensation loss adjustment ratio is twice as high as Alabama’s, meaning we are paying more due to litigation and permanent disability claims.
But set aside the business gripes. California no longer has a monopoly on “cool,” either.
Yes, our climate is still great — but talented young professional can find great culture and a great food scene in Birmingham just as well as Berkeley. They can also afford to live there: The median home price in Alabama is $126,500, while California it’s just shy of a half-million dollars.
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(Excerpt) Read more at ocregister.com ...
So why is he still in Cali?
$100,000 salary would go a lot further in Alabama than silicon valley.
GM left the San Fernando Valley decades ago.
This is not just happening in Alabama and Nevada but everywhere with the exception of states such as California, Illinois, New Jersey, nearly all of New England and any State run by Socialist more concerned with Illegal Aliens that Working Class Law-Abiding Citizen Families. Beretta is moving to Tennessee and out of Maryland. I only hope we in Pennsylvania get rid of the Democrat Governor and Legislature so that some of these jobs will move here as well.
Tesla would scoff at this: they think themselves not as an automaker, but as as a software development company that applies its software to autos.
Investors will scoff too, as the company so far seems unable to master mass production.
Some people think its cool to be able to have one parent stay at home to raise kids, or have a house with a yard.
We made our escape from SoCal in 2015 to East Tennessee. The absolute best thing we have ever done. A very business friendly state, jobs are plentiful.
And, no state income tax.
One of the first states to be called for Trump on election night. I can’t begin to describe the feeling that gave me after so many years in California watching my vote not count. It was a moment of gratitude and pride in my adopted home state.
It’s paradise here.
go redneck tech
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“Some people think its cool to be able to have one parent stay at home to raise kids, or have a house with a yard. “
Both of our older children are married, have families and live near us in the SF Bay Area. They both have very nice homes (with nice yards) and the two women are home raising their children. One wife doesn’t work, the other does, from home, and earns $150,000! So it’s stupid to compare living in Alabama vs. California on cost. Everything is relative. Salaries are higher, but so is the cost of living here. I used to have a supplier in Huntsville. Nice place, but oppressively humid in the summer. And then there were the tornados, which were always targeting mobile home parks there with deadly results.
As for Tesla, you should tour the Tesla plant in Fremont (the former NUMMI plant). They build a high-quality automobile with an almost human-free environment. I’ve also been to McCarran, NV site of the Tesla Battery plant. My wife’s family business has built a stand alone location there to provide a key service to Tesla. Tesla has built 3 million square feet of mfg. space in which they are making batteries, and they are moving ahead with a build out that will be something on the order of 12 million sq. ft. I would not bet against Musk.
Funny that the writer mentions the social scene in Birmingham when the growth is taking place in Huntsville and Mobile. Those two cities are much more attractive than Birmingham and its messed up politics and Montgomery with its schools taken over be the state. I think that Huntsville and Mobile are much more active in recruiting new industry because they have more to offer. The Huntsville area has a long established high tech economy while Mobile has their port and other transportation access.
Ssh,don’t tell everyone,they’ll all show up.Welcome neighbor
I really wish these folks would STFU! We don’t need any more liberals in Alabama.
Thankful to be an engineer in Alabama, part of the 17%. Mexifornia is in the process of destroying itself.
Remember when California was a Golden State? That was before it descended into Third World status. Stupidity has its consequences. I saw it coming and got out; it appears to have been genius, but in fact it was nothing but honesty. Evil is the ultimate stupidity, and scorn of truth is a serious evil. A word to the wise: Never, ever deceive yourself; always be ruthlessly truthful with yourself.
Three little words: Right To Work!
Most of the Big Companies abandoned California a long time ago and the Medium sized ones are following fast.
I lived across the street from GM in Van Nuys when I moved out at 17
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