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...summarizes issues raised in the latest SLC report that assesses the industry's role in these Southern economies.
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America's complicated and multi-faceted love affair with the automobile has flourished for over a century now. The automobile's impact on American society and cultural mores remains so pervasive that there are few other products that can stake the same claim. In fact, few, if any, other products have been so enshrined in the nation's movies, clothing, dance, music and in the general American psyche as has the car. Similarly, automobiles have been reviled, celebrated, nearly worshiped, sometimes banned, used incessantly and relied on almost entirely for most of our surface transportation needs. In addition, there are very few other industries in the country that can claim the kind of economic complexity, broad connections and impact that the automobile industry can since the beginning of the 20th century. From employing a formidable percentage of the nation's workforce--numbering many millions in direct, indirect and dependent employees--at thousands of assembly plants and auto parts production and service facilities and tens of thousands of dealerships, the industry generates tens of billions in wages and hundreds of billions in annual sales. The millions of vehicles produced every year furnish the multitude of licensed drivers across the country with a mode of conveyance, often among the most important considerations in the livelihood of Americans in contemporary society.
While the national economic figures and their ripple effects remain truly massive, the automobile industry's contribution to the economic magnitude of the 16 states in The Council of State Governments' southern region, the Southern Legislative Conference (SLC), remains significant too. According to the latest information available from the federal government, the motor vehicle industry's contribution to the gross state product (GSP) of these Southern states amply documents this assertion. For instance, in 2001, the industry amounted to $10.3 billion in Kentucky, $5.5 billion in Missouri and $5.4 billion in Tennessee....
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