Mississippi Suffers for Detroit's Woes

Toyota announced today that it is suspending construction of a new auto plant in Mississippi. If GM and/or Chrysler were allowed to go bankrupt, perhaps Toyota would believe that it could increase its market share and complete this new plant.

And whether it is this plant or additional output at existing factories a bailout of the Big Three may take jobs away from workers employed at Ford(which isn't suffering to the same degree as GM and Chrysler) and the US factories of Toyota, Honda and other foreign auto makers.

The burdens and negative effects of government intervention are often diffuse and hard to see, as compared to the direct benefit of "saving jobs" at the Big Three.

Toyota's suspension of building its new factory, and the ensuing loss of construction and auto worker jobs, helps illustrate these very real costs.