Toyota, Moving Northward - New York Times

Krugman: "Pundits tell us that the welfare state is doomed by globalization, that programs like national health insurance have become unsustainable. But Canada's universal health insurance system is handling international competition just fine. It's our own system, which penalizes companies that treat their workers well, that's in trouble."

This is interesting. It would be interesting if we could get the actual methods that auto manufacturers use in determining where to site their facilities. I wonder if it's some kind of mathematical model (we learned a very basic tool in my planning methods class involving transportation and the weight of inputs and outputs -- hopefully this is not what Toyota is doing) or in the end based on which place had representatives who were better at shmoozing.

Regardless, the article is a useful argument for having a government that bothers to provide a basic social net.