The Big Three have required more infrastructure from us. That technology has made possible in Columbus what otherwise might be tenuous enterprises. Take Carmike Cinemas. The nation's second-largest movie theater chain is based in town mostly because of a driveway conversation in 1979 between CEO Michael W. Patrick and a neighbor who owned a software development outfit. And we could never have specialized in rural markets.
Small companies benefit, too.
This is not to say that manufacturing has disappeared. The new denim operation is economically viable because the North American Free Trade Agreement allows Marubeni to ship finished denim, duty-free, from Georgia to Mexico for cutting and sewing. The advantages were so attractive that Marubeni did not even hold out for state or local tax incentives. At Marubeni, she was stunned to see the computer-operated looms producing denim at five times the rate of Bibb's old machines. New looms like Marubeni's require just half the number of workers as old looms.