Did The People of California Kill NUMMI?

Cities, counties, states and nations all compete for investment (read: business). They are also perfectly capable of legislating themselves out of competitiveness.

California isn't really an ideal area for major vehicle manufacturing. Manufacturers have learned that the Midwest is best for making their products and best as shipping centers for the rest of the N.A. market.

There are multiple reasons why there are (were) so many Big3 facilities in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois...most of if due to the lay of the land. It costs money to ship across/thru the Rocky Mts. It makes financial sense to build on the side where it's easier to reach the majority of your customers. BMW, Hyundai, M-B, and Nissan knows this. That's why they selected the locations they have today.

Of course there are manifold considerations.

The Republic of Cali is particularly expensive for businesses in terms of land, transportation, and labor costs along with a high tax structure.

Thus, other states are more than happy to outbid us by offering free land, access to cheap transportation, low paid workers along with low state overhead, and state tax incentives.

We can't even hold our Legislature responsible for a budget, much less keeping manufacturing plants open. The State Legislature is beholden to two golden calves: The state/county employee unions and the state teachers union.

The state is basically bi-polar when it comes to business. On one hand, they need businesses to help pay for their huge social works handouts, but on the other hand, they could care less because few voters side with those same businesses who employ the workers who pay the taxes that fund those social works programs.

There's the Land of the Free and then there's the land of the freeloaders:

Free "benefits" for everyone, more bureaucrats in Sacramento and elsewhere, more and more unaccountable teachers for our failing schools, more billions for the bridges that were going to be finished years ago (the Chinese promised us the steel was good, somebody must have swapped it on the way here), more money for man-love studies and rainbow parties ... what's not to love?

Absolutely it's not our fault, we just wanted free stuff and I remember they specifically told us we don't have to pay for it. And screw Toyota, they didn't pay all that well to begin with ... and Sacramento is hiring so who cares!

I think for the first phrase of the second paragraph to be correct it shoudl go something like this:

"Free" "benefits" for "everyone"...

Ha!

You are correct!

Free = "well, you do have to pay for them, it's right here in the fine print";
benefits = "they're really beneficial, to us the government that is";
everyone = "again, us the government".

Phew, I need to chill out a bit. Maybe I'll just run out real quick and have a Zin at Nancy's place in Napa. :)

Other than agriculture, Cali is morphing to a high intellectual property, high technology, low labor economy.

52% of our tax dollars goes to our schools alone. Ca is not very business friendly. Most have gone to Nevada and elsewhere.

At the end, it were the
- UAW
- high labor cost
that kills the NUMMI.
Toyota don't want a factory with UAW in their camp.
On average, a Corolla produced in NUMMI is $500 more than other state.
That $500 is lot considering the fact that Toyota probably make only $500 per Corolla now. California laws are labor protective and unfriendly to business expansion such as re-tooling and tax on plant equipments. While the latter was alleviated ad hoc for NUMMI, but it was not enough to swing Toyota's decision.
Many in Bay Area buy Toyota since they are "neighbors". Once NUMMI is closed,
you will see more HONDAs here...

Any businesses still in California are only there because of specific tax breaks/protections, the labor pool which is not quickly migrated elsewhere, the climate which cannot (yet) be destroyed by the politicians, product markets, inertia, or stupidity. Every other factor favors relocating elsewhere. Worse, the downward spiral might be unrecoverable, and with escalating taxes, fees, and idiocy, California's economy could soon reach a tipping point.

Wow - I must say I'm shocked at the universal condemnation of California by the commenters here. Not that I disagree, mind you - I think cdoke said it best "states and nations all compete for investment (read: business). They are also perfectly capable of legislating themselves out of competitiveness."

Still, I'm surprised one of California's proud citizens hasn't defended her. Could it be that California is about to experience a political shift?

I dearly hope so