This is from a 2005 article, but it is still pertinent.
http://southernstudies.org/2005/08/toyota-reveals-limits-of-great.html-snip-
The Japanese auto giant announced that it was going to bypass offers of hundreds of millions of dollars in "recruitment incentives" (corporate subsidies) from several Southern states, and would instead set up shop in Ontario, Canada, which was offering much fewer give-aways.
The decision to head north was an embarassment for Southern states eagerly competing to lure Toyota, on several levels. Not only did they lose a trophy job-creator for their state. But the reason Toyota gave for the move was especially damning:
"The level of the workforce in general is so high that the training program you need for people, even for people who have not worked in a Toyota plant before, is minimal compared to what you have to go through in the southeastern United States," said Gerry Fedchun, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, whose members will see increased business with the new plant <...>
Several U.S. states were reportedly prepared to offer more than double subsidy . But Fedchun said much of that extra money would have been eaten away by higher training costs than are necessary for the Woodstock project.
He said Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment.
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But now companies are waking up to the limitations of locating in a state that cares more about handing out tax breaks than investing in its people.
Have the Republicans learned anything from this? Hell no. Their ideology of refusing to learn from mistakes, belligerent stubbornness to change direction and desperate clinging to their failed policies will harm Texans for years to come.
No need to wear shades here. Our future is not bright.