Jackson Jambalaya

To learn more about what it is like to work for an Amazon "fulfillment center" watch this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9m7d07k22A

its a shipping center. things come in and things go out. no MS $ leaving the state.

Kingfish, you seriously want MS constrained to whatever job growth it can create organically, with anything originating outside the state being unwelcome?

All that matters is that it is an out of state corporation.

Sure wish our state government would do something for SW Mississippi. Natchez has the river, a railroad, and fourlane highways in all directions. It's as if this part of the state doesn't exist.

yeah, and you left out two things that are VERY important to economic development.

"Since the early 2000s, Amazon has quietly received more than $1.5 billion in government subsidies, in exchange for bringing new jobs to cities and states across the country. At the same time, low-wage employees at Amazon's grueling warehouses have sometimes had to rely on a different kind of government benefit, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, to make ends meet."

So, we'll see 1000 more Mississippians get a lifetime of disability after years of GubMint subsidized cut wage physical labor jobs, and the geezers will instead complain about schoolteachers.

Damn idiots who are penny wise and pound foolish. "JOBS" (with NO benefits, but taxpayer paid healthcare, SNAP, EITC, etc). Wowser.

I done got me a job running in the sweatshop with no chance to pee and $8 an hour, Maw!!!! You done good, boy!! Why you limping? Git down to SS for a check!!! As always.

Naw. I've got to be wrong. This is the Secret Amazon Drone Base where our UAV engineers will be commanding legions of drones at 6 figure salaries, their advanced education subsidized, and the well educated will be moving here in droves. It can't POSSIBLY be another tax break for billionaires and a minimum wage job warehouse.

I’m assuming the “money being sucked out of MS” relates to property taxes and possibly some local sales tax enticements. But, it’s not all bad. Aren’t the payroll earnings creating additional individual income, sales, and potentially property taxes from individuals? (Assuming they hire actual MS residents.) I do agree that MS needs to support and cultivate more home-grown revenues, but even then, any company who promises to invest in a property and hire a substantial workforce will receive tax incentives... whether they are a MS-based company or not.

Toyota and Nissan are out of state corporations; Kingfish.
But; what can u expect from someone who thinks Sid Salter is worth publishing??

Genuinely curious: what do you think Hood could do here?

Let's see, out of state corporations like:

Walmart, Target, CVS, Walgreens, Sam's Club, Costco, McDonald's, The Fresh Market, Whole Foods, Academy Sports, Dick's, Bass Pro Shop, Kroger,...

Gotcha.

Great question !

I don't know the answer.

But I'm sure something could be arranged with a bush-hog and some 12 gauge re-loading gunpowder.

Maybe Amazon needs a farm road built with Hood's horsepower and sweat?

What Mississippi Companies of this caliber do we currently have or even on the burner that could be hiring Mississippians that can compare? All for it if they are here. Remember we have the Continental Tire Company about to open doors and manufacture. Not a politician, lawyer or economist, just asking.

And while he’s at it, maybe Hood can run these companies out as well:

Entergy, Regions, Paccar, Huntington-Ingalls, Continental...

3:44, evidently you failed Economic Development 101 while you were in trade school.

What stays in the state is the payroll of 1300 employees,which those employees will spend on minor and major expenditures while living in the area.

What also stays is the fees in lieu that the company will pay to Desoto County; the taxes that will go to support Desoto County schools (hopefully even to the point that they could lower the tax rate on property owners in the county due to this increased revenue stream.) Those workers will be buying gas to get to work, food while at work, etc.

To say that nothing comes from a distribution center is just stupidity, almost as stupid as Kingfish's statement that we ought not work trying to get out of state companies to establish branches in the state, only work on expanding local companies --- as if accomplishing the first stops one from accomplishing the second. Maybe KF only got through the first semester of ED 101, or else grew up with that Louisiana background enough to twist his ability to think clearly.

I recognize that helping mom and pop expand from 5 employees to 7 or 10 is a good thing; helping a small 100 employee company get to 150 is a hell of an accomplishment (if there is a role for the state to play in such a growth). But that 100 person company isn't going to employ 1300 folks anytime soon, or the 2500 going to work at Continental, or the 5000 at Nissan, etc.

This bugger is dripping KF. Few of them get it.

If Amazon has 350 employees in Marshall county in three years I’ll be the first to kiss Phil Bryant’s naked ass.

Kingfish, Mark your calendar. I’ll text you who this is.

" Natchez has the river, a railroad, and fourlane highways in all directions. It's as if this part of the state doesn't exist."

You're right.

On paper, Natchez has everything any industry looks for, expect good public schools.

Natchez also is overloaded with idiots ( Black & White) that are hostile to industry for whatever their petty reasons.

Natchez also once had three of the largest industries in the state:

International Paper.

A major tire factory: Armstrong Tire, Fidelity Tire, Titan Tire and perhaps another owner for a few weeks.

Also the large Johns Manville factory that employed close to one thousand sheeple.

All three plants closed.

There was one common denominator.
All three plants had undereducated employees that were convinced that joining the "union" and going on or threatening to "strike" was in their best interest.

We'll that didn't work out to well for the good Natchez proletariat.

So . . . yeah 4:01 PM, Natchez brought that upon themselves.

No wonder the Nissans and Toyota's of the world won't even glance at such a dysfunctional little river town like Natchez.

Mississippi has had distribution centers before. My grandfather worked as a forklift operator at the Western Auto distribution center in Jackson back in the 20th century. He said the theft was so brazen that Jacksonians were stealing refrigerators, deep freezers, ACs, etc right off the loading docks. He remembers that half of the used appliances in the Jackson metro were stolen from Western Auto. The employees at the Jackson warehouse nearly bankrupted to company.

The fact that a company is taking a risk despite that black eye the state received post affirmative action, is a blessing.

gee 4:08, how is Amazon responsible for the people who can't afford to work for $8 an hour taking $8 an hour jobs? Maybe they shouldn't be trying to provide for a family with a job like that, if that's all they are qualified to do perhaps it's not the time to have a family. When I was not worth making much more than minimum wage I worked 3 jobs to take care of my family.

You can tell KF’’s punk a$$ feels strongly about this. But it’s like my grand pappy used to say: “opinions are like bum holes and everybody has one.” KF, this is your opinion. Quit acting like you understand economics.

What the hell is an 'out of state pronunciation' and what does the Kingfish think an attorney general can or should or will do about this industrial announcement? It's none of his damned business and 500 jobs is good news, regardless of the location of the home office. Meanwhile; how many high dollar jobs providers have home offices in Mississippi?

Whatta you know about economic development, Kingfish? Please start your answer off with your experience in that effort.

Amazon starts their employees at $15 an hour...suck it negative Nancy. I swear, I wish some of you old sour bastards would just ope. A vein already

Those "low wages" you are talking about 4:08 are much higher than the average wage in Mississippi. The Democratic Congresswoman that fought Amazon from locating in NYC was upset that the wages were in the $50k per year range. I realize that is probably half of what some of our unemployed drug dealers in Jackson make every year, but the salaries paid by these "out of state" corporations would be being paid to individuals that would be paying taxes on their income, and spending it on productive activities, not in the black market.

Live on thinking that there are no benefits to a distribution center if you wish, but before you express yourself and show your ignorance, go back and study the concept of economic development first.

I’m sure this sounds cruel to some, but those who argue for higher wages for minimal skill jobs sound like this to me: “I will never understand why I can’t choose to not to get my high school education, followed by either not pursuing a college education or a technical career (or another means to support myself), and then not find any company to pay me MY definition of a comfortable wage. I just want a nice subsidized apartment, a new car with cheap insurance (despite my stupid choices growing up. I mean YOLO!!), the newest iPhone, and to feed my 5 children from multiple relationships. I’ve been told my entire life the government is supposed to take care of me and if we can just elect the right people they will fix all my woes by taxing the hell out of corporations and those rich folks. By the way, I refuse to work two jobs! Actually, I can’t, because I have all these children.”

For those of us who live in the real world, my single mother worked 4-5 jobs AND babysat every chance she could to raise her children alone. We did NOT have everything we wanted, and shocker, we all survived. My husband has worked two jobs for years and his primary job is an excellent paying job. If you want more money for your work, learn a skill or obtain a certification or degree. You DON’T deserve higher wages because a company is successful. If you want more money for your family, you may have to work two jobs!! ALL of these things from education to training to how many jobs you work are YOUR CHOICE!

If we want higher wages for MS, we need families who take education and training more seriously and to quit expecting everything to be owed to us. I know of many companies that can’t find properly trained and/or educated workers to fill vacancies. MS has a workforce problem, period! No company owes higher wages for an under-trained and under-educated workforce. When I see money wasted by politicians arguing for more taxation, I can’t help but think of how many training programs they could have funded for those desiring to improve themselves.

6:18 - Haven't you heard? Kingfish is an expert on PERS, economics, 401(k), HOAs and Industrial Development. Next thing 'ya know, he'll be schoolin' us on football injuries and the foibles of Old Myth.

KF, you've jumped the shark on this one. And badly.

Please go read:Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlit and get back to us.

They're all hooked in the gill KF. Touché. You are the master.

Kingfish is trolling all of y’all, lol

Sorry yall! Kf has been hanging out with David Singletary.

Don't worry all you bloggers. My retirement is resting on the Lottery starting next week. See you a at the convenience store!

Would you like to identify Mississippi companies that are able to create so many jobs?

KF sux #donkeyballz

Natchez also doesn't have a decent airport as other parts of the state do. That is another thing businesses want now.

Sure KF. 1,350 jobs paying around $15 ($30K/year) is a horrible thing. After all, your (KF's) economic plan ($0/yr) helps us so much more than that. You and AOC are absolute economic geniuses. Mississippians appreciate that you stick it to the 'man' by not letting us have decent paying jobs. Thank God KF is looking out for us and killing jobs here, there, and everywhere. Truly, a man of the people.

There's a bunch of tools in this shed.

While you’re at it, kick the casinos out too....how many of them are HQ’d in Mississippi?

To Mr Economic Development expert...Economic development is total and complete garbage. All of the ED gurus out there point to Toyota and Nissan...whoop de do, never mentioning the dozens of boondoggle, taxpayer giveaway turds these morons skipped their way into. Every state in the union conducts ED the same way...so if MS does the same things it puts us back of the line waiting for the most aggressive shysters who have been turned down elsewhere. But I guess we need all these economic development jobs since IHL has a steady crop of no talent blowhards.

I am not certain but have a hunch the headline may have something to do with the rhetoric from the election two weeks ago. If I recall correctly, Jimbo kept talking about Tater and the "out of state corporations."

KF is a little man with a tiny blog. And he’s way too insecure to post this lol

KF's sarcasm has generated a bunch of "clicks."

Mission accomplished. Bravo!

6:08 well bully for you

I’ve just never understood the thought process of Republican voters. How can you approve of your elected officials giving handouts to a trillion dollar company? The only person benefiting from that is the richest person in the world. I guess it’s just the same old lies of trickle down economics still fooling the Republican base all these years later.

KF, your viewpoint on this is like the technology of your blog: outdated.

5:41 pm You are absolutely accurate in your comments.

You didn't get into the " weeds" of the concept.

It's left up to the States to regulate and implement the Fee in Lieu agreements. And, each State differs.

So the question becomes " Has Mississippi adopted regulations that ensure that the benefits will outweigh the costs?"

How accurately ( in qualifications and the ability to obtain reliable information) can MDA evaluate the proposed agreements?

Are the loopholes that have plagued such agreements in the past been " plugged" in MS?

The opportunity for businesses to avoid all start costs ( thus their investment risk in plant and facilities) and reduced taxes on future profit can put Mississippians in the position of being investors who see no return in their investment.

Given our State's history in failure to do " due diligence" and corruption, I have to admit skepticism. That history occurred because of failure to create a process that protects tax payer dollars from being wasted. And, because the requirements to provide adequate public information are weak.

Amazon is a good company, but no business is above receiving " gifts" or can be expected to invest their time and energy in preventing local politicians from lining their own pockets( or that of their supporters/family) in the process they are required to follow.

Me thinks Kingfish's calendar has jumped ahead to April 1st or he is speaking tongue-in-cheek.

Kingfish must have been in the same college economic development class as AOC.

The same clown has posted at least seven times congratulating KF for suckering the lot of us. However, I see KF fingerprints on all of those posts. And Pappy Odool must be into the real stuff. What an outlandish post from that character who has obviously never been involved in the process or gauged its outcomes.

You're funny. Really funny considering when they were made I was either driving or at a restaurant last night with my phone put up. My brain waves are strong but not that strong. Funny how threatened you are that someone might actually agree with me or that you were too dumb to get the fact that this post is a parody of Jim Hood's campaign whining about out of state corporations.

If I had been Tate, I would have gotten film of INgalls workers showing up for work at shift change, pics of Nissan (a Musgrove project), Toyota, and other such plants and pointed out they are out of state corporations. I might have asked if Jim Hood wants them to leave and take their jobs with them.

Hood's out of state crap harkened back to the 60's when the segregationists used to raise hell about "out of state" agitators. Everyone knew what he meant by "out of state." What he meant was no Jap money is wanted in Mississippi instead of welcoming out of state companies who think so much of Mississippi they want to invest their money in this state.

I’m guessing the extent of most commenter’s economics knowledge is the Fox and Friends round table discussion of AOC.

Speaking of airports, what kilt the airfield planned for Madison County up near Canton, to serve Nissan and others I assume. I know Rudy et all was involved, but what did it in?

3:56 - Turn your cap around. There was never going to be an airport 'up yonder'. The whole bogus deal was a plan to gift Rudy with over a million bucks for a non-existent study, and for him to pass half of it back out in Christmas envelopes. Just like he did for six years while the board made him wealthy.

Sure there was going to be an airport - right next to Disney Mississippi and Universal Studios Mississippi.

"Sure there was going to be an airport - right next to Disney Mississippi and Universal Studios Mississippi."

And the secretive Madison branch of JSU that slipped into town and just as quietly left two years later.

Natchez is but one city in Southwest MS. There are others with good school systems, 4 lane highway, rivers and such. The Southwest corner of this state has long been forgotten by the folks at MDA.

I will list a few examples of good places in SW Miss.

Brookhaven, Monticello, Meadville, Summit, and Wesson to name a few.

Read this 2015 article.

Yes, and they don't have much of a talent pool for middle and upper management. That is another challenge facing such towns.