“I think a lot of people know that exporting is important to manufacturing and manufacturing is important to this (metropolitan statistical area).”
The statistics quoted are as follows:
"The $4.28 billion exported in 2012 — a record number for metro area exports — ranked Greensboro 58th in the country, according to the International Trade Administration."
So with that being the case I have to ask, why are Greensboro's leaders not doing more to encourage more locally owned manufacturing instead of trying to court the same handful of multinational corporations that every city in the free world and several countries we don't consider free are currently courting?
I mean, it's not like they're not already here, we don't have to talk them into coming here and they're not apt to leave after they become big. Ford, GM and Chrysler never left the Detroit area. Sure, they built plants in other cities and states but all three companies are still headquartered just outside of Detroit just like they've always been.
You don't attract industry over the long term, you grow it.
Also note: the article talks about the metropolitan statistical area and not Greensboro specifically. Greensboro is a part of the Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point, North Carolina, MSA and is currently ranked 97th in household earnings.
Greensboro alone, has almost no manufacturing and is the weak link of the Greensboro–Winston-Salem–High Point, North Carolina, MSA chain.
Later folks, I'm off to build the moped factory... in Burlington.
