Not too far from my own little piece of Terra Firma, a new Korean (KIA) automobile production plant is being built.  You can read an LA Times article about the local take on the Big 3 car makers bail-out here.

Old postcard of downtown West Point, GA.  Doesn't look a lot different now, except most of the cars are pick-ups and used Caddies.  Oh, and newer models.

 The article hits the nail on the head.  The local towns have lost - in some cases - 100% of their manufacturing jobs because textile mills shut down and sent their businesses to foreign soil.  These were one-company towns.  The county of my youth is experiencing nearly 15% unemployment, with many more people having simply dropped off the unemployment rolls entirely.  It is bleak.

KIA making announcement of manufacturing plant in West Point, GA:

Kia Sportage

Now there is the prospect of some really great high-tech, high-pay, high-benefit jobs at KIA, and at their tier 1,2,and so on suppliers, all within easy commute. KIA got an up-front bail-out, because Georgia paid a huge amount of incentives to get the car maker to land where they did.  My county is across the river in Alabama, but suppliers are locating all up and down the Interstate system now, with little regard for the state line.

 But this will still be a one industry town.  Just a different industry. When will we learn?  Watching the Big 3 meltdown has more than a few locals worried about putting all of the eggs we have left in this one basket.

Sometimes I despair.  

Abandoned textile mill; what will abandoned auto plants look like?

 Photgraph removed at request of someone who claims to have it copyrighted. Even though it was in a folder of pictures I took at our local textile mills being torn down.