A community that seemed on the road to becoming a ghost town has taken a turn toward prosperity despite the recession, thanks to an automaker.
Korean car manufacturer Kia plans to open a sprawling automobile factory in tiny West Point, Georgia, by the end of the year. The boon has already spurred economic growth -- and just plain excitement -- among residents, said Mayor Drew Ferguson.
"We jokingly call it Kia-ville," said Ferguson, a 42-year-old dentist helping to oversee expansion of West Point, population 3,500. The announcement is drawing workers and businesses to the community about 80 miles south of Atlanta.
"The revitalization of the community is touching every aspect," Ferguson said. "
. . .
On Main Street, residents are sampling new flavors that have come to West Point since the announcement.
Asian restaurants and businesses are popping up. The old Pizza Hut has transformed into a Korean Bar-B-Que, and the southern staple KFC is now a popular Korean eatery called Young's Garden.
Resident Christy Magbee said West Point is starting to feel like a melting pot.
"You got the culture coming in. You don't have to travel to Atlanta anymore. It's starting to come here," she said.
There's a video report as well, which says the town of 3,500 will gain 20,000 jobs over the next 5 years.
11 comments:
I guess if the town had thanked Buddha, Koreans would have gotten pissed.
Kia and Hyundai have been moving into southern towns to avoid the unions of the north. As a Michigander, I hope for those folks in Georgia that Kia can maintain its competative edge. That small Georgia town could turn into the type of ghost town that Detroit is now if Kia starts loosing money.
In other news G.M. decided to build the Chevy version of The Matiz outside of Detroit. After all of the bailouts that G.M. got from the federal government, the cunts decided that they would make cities compete for the jobs with tax incentives and subsidies. G.M. said publically that they were just looking for the place that would give them the most money.
I hope that Kia can gain traction in Georgia and sell some cars, but I also hope that Kia doesn't follow G.M.s business model of being cunts.
3gyup,
It was the same strategy employed by the Japanese car companies in the 1980s. They moved places in the south with young work forces, cheap land, governments giving tax breaks, and no union culture. For a couple decades the Japanese enjoyed a workforce with low incidences of retirement, health problems, etc. The Big Three bellowed this was unfair but now time has caught up with Toyota and Honda. They're having to bear the costs of an aging and retiring workforce.
All 'n' all, it's not unfair. It's just smart business. Any company looking to locate to the states would look for the same.
I don't think it is unfair either. Business is business, and when your competitors start to do better than you, you gotta step up your game. The big three never listened to criticism they just kept on telling themselves that they were doing a good job, and that killed them.
I think it's great for the town and great for the economy.
But I do think Western Confucian brings up a good point on The Marmot's Hole post:
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How did America go from the world’s manufacturing powerhouse to a source of cheap labor for one of our protectorates, who, we should remember, kept its markets closed to our products for decades while its defense was subsidized by us?
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That said it's time to realize that "Made in America" extends beyond American companies, in the same way American companies manufacture overseas.
I just arrived back in the USA to live and it seems like every other car I see is either a Kia or Hyundai. The dealer where I bought my Kia Spectra siad that he has sold over 200 Kia of various models since June 1. I visited the shop yestereday and all the Souls were sold out and the salesman said that they are on backorder now and do not expect to have any more of that model in until September. Kia provides a good value for the dollars spent, but the warranty is not as good as it appears to be when you take time to understand it.
It's largely a myth that america doens't make anything anymore.
The data here are a few years old but even in 2006 people were claiming the same thing... america's manufacturing economy is being cored out:
http://www.cafehayek.com/hayek/2006/02/we_dont_make_an.html
Some more recent data from the NY Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/20/business/worldbusiness/20iht-wbmake.1.20332814.html?_r=1
America is still the largest manufacturer on earth. That's not changed. What has changed is American can make a lot more with a lot less people. Remember Chinese factories do not have the automation. They have a lot of people employed in manufacturing because they are inefficient. They can remain inefficient because wages are far far less and currency exchange rates allow this to continue.
Consider what is more important: your nation produces the most milk or your nation employs the most milk maids to make less milk?
America doesn't make cars like it used to but that's only one facet of the massive US manufacturing economy. To think auto manufacturing is a bellwether of US manufacturing is to be a blind person feeling an elephant's tusk and saying "ah, elephants are very very smooth creatures."
And Korea sells cheap KIAs in the USA but doesn't like the USA sell Fords. Who is hurt by this? Living in Korea, you're aware you pay more for Samsung products in Korea vs the same Samsung products in the USA. There was a big stink about Koreans could buy a Hyundai cheaper in the USA and then import it as compared to buying it from a local dealer. If your people are spending a larger % of their wages on cars, fridges, tvs etc and have less to eat, see movies, visit Jeju, etc., it seems to me Korea hurts its own people far more than it hurts the USA.
These stories on West Point and the town that Hyundai are in are becoming regular features. Last November it was about West Pointers enjoying Korean barbecue and more recently, Miss Georgia winning a Kia Soul.
Kia and Hyundai are getting greater and greater market share and it's not just because of being cheaper: the cars have reliability that is well backed up through service and they have high safety ratings for most vehicles, with the economy changing attitudes about cars and stuff, such that buying a Hyundai or Kia seems smart, not cheap. IOW, I don't foresee a ghost town anytime soon, though there's always such a possibility when any town is a company town. If Disney ever left Orange County, Anaheim would be an empty shell.
WORD VERIFICATION: hypecoo
Yeah, Mindmetoo, brings up some good points about manufacturing. Americans still make many things like, Airplanes (Boeing) Train Engines (G.E.) Agriculture machinery, (John Deere, Alice Chalmers) Industrial equipment (Caterpiller) Those are just to name a few.
The thing is, is that the economy has changed so that manual labor jobs are no longer sustainable to the point where zero training can result in getting a good job. I used to work in a box factory and made eight dollars an hour because I worked through a temp service, where someone who took a month long course in getting a fork lift operators license could make twelve bucks an hour and have an easier job.
Now the economy favors specialized jobs. If you are a certified welder, plumber, or electrician you can find work easier than someone with no skills. The same is true for factory work. Generally factories hire through temp services, and have a 6 month minimum prerequisite factory experience or licensing before they even consider you. I toured a Denso plant one time. Denso makes car parts for Toyota, Honda, and they even designed the self parallel parking computers that go into Lexuses and B.M.W.s. Most of the work is done by robots, but the robots need people to program them and fix them whenever they break down, so the work is more specialized mechanic work than it is busy work of putting together tiny servos.
If they U.S. Auto industry wants to get back on its feet it has to win customers back, streamline its expenses, fix its pension problems, and make better cars. I think that if America can finally fix its health care system, that would give the country a big boost to its competitiveness. Now Korea has universal national healthcare, it doesn't fix everything, but the small costs that it does take care of can go a long way. Meanwhile the big three are left paying pensions and insurance that could be taken care of by the government.
3gyupsal, thanks for the insight. It's always nice to hear an informed "insider" viewpoint.
Woah, I'm hardly an insider. I toured the Denso factory when I was in college. I was taking a history class about the history of the Japanese car industry. It just seemed like an interesting class that only had 4 other students in it. I also lived near by the plant so I just called the H.R. department and they were nice enough to walk me around for an hour.
I also only worked in a factory for 2 months. It was a cardboard factory and my job was catching cardboard circles that went under pizzas as they were shot out of a roll die press. I would hardly call myself an insider because of those two experiences. (Although, I kind of enjoyed the factory job, it was 8 hours of not having to think about anything so it actually kind of frees your mind. If you have ever had the experience of mowing a couple of acres of grass on a riding mower, you would know how that kind of job makes you just think about things, makes you think about your life, and can really inspire creativity.)
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