Cut the South Carolina jokes, Seattle. Get ready to compete

OK, Seattle, we South Carolinians get it.

We've seen the silly pictures, the cluttered David Horsey cartoon so demeaning Boeing felt it had to apologize for it, and we've read those vacuous blog entries that spew cultural and regional stereotyping.

Some of it is funny, some insulting. All of it seems simplistic.

But the message seems clear: Many folks in Washington state just can't get over Boeing's decision to build a second 787 Dreamliner assembly plant anywhere else but there.

South Carolinians enjoy levity and even a good debate, but the caustic sore-sporting in the Seattle area about Boeing's decision is becoming an unbecoming reaction from one of America's most progressive communities.

Ignorance about South Carolina and anger with Boeing seem to abound in nearly equal parts.

We're not offended; we just wonder if you folks are getting the real message up there?

This is about Boeing, plainly and simply. Not about some putative legacy to workers and unions who apparently think they are owed one.

And, many are asking incredulously, why would Boeing pick South Carolina?

Well, why not South Carolina?

Ours is a business-friendly state that thrives on globally competitive industry. BMW produces almost 171,000 vehicles annually at its ever-expanding Greenville-Spartanburg plant. Michelin and Bosch have huge operations. The South Carolina port system keys a vibrant intermodal transportation service industry. Since 1960, international firms have invested more than $35.8 billion in South Carolina, and created 141,000 jobs. International companies accounted for 44 percent of all capital investment in 2008 and 28 percent of all jobs recruited. Japan has 103 job-making entities in our state and Germany, 96.

It may be shattering news to many in Greater Seattle, but Everett has no exclusive franchise on aircraft assembly. Nor does its workers — as good as they are — qualify as the premier aircraft industry work force against which all others are to be rejected as dangerous pretenders.

Yes, we got your message. Here are ours: If you folks in the beautiful Pacific Northwest can assemble airplanes, we can, too, and probably better. We train well, work hard and care about the companies that provide jobs in our state.

Boeing may be new to our community but we feel like we know the company well.

Boeing no longer dominates its international markets simply by reach and reputation. Current and future competitors populate the marketplace with a determination to gain market share. Europe's Airbus lurks everywhere. China will surely continue to eye opportunities in Boeing's business orbits.

Sure, Boeing was once an indigenous Seattle community-based industry. But Billy Boeing's Boeing has changed its strategic mindset since 1910 when he turned Heath's shipyard on Seattle's Duwamish River into his first airplane factory.

Today, the Boeing enterprise employs more than 158,000 people across the United States and in 70 countries.

And as of January 2001, Boeing is headquartered in Chicago. None of its board members are from Seattle.

Global competition is a harsh proposition. New ways of doing new things to enhance profitability prime the logistical pumps. Competitiveness is an all-hands proposition, and one way or another, vendors, assembly-plant communities, workers and labor unions become factors in the moving equations of production, risks — and profitability.

This need not be about unions, but some out there seem convinced it is. Well, facts are facts and the market is the ultimate reality. Everett's Boeing unions staged five costly strikes over the past 20 years. By definition, that's a cost-and-risk dynamic for any global company formulating its long-term competitive strategies.

It's really a simple proposition, isn't it?

Communities wanting a piece of Boeing's action must fit Boeing's strategic picture.

From a standing start, South Carolina's economic development team has primed a nascent aircraft industry. For more than three years, they worked to sell Boeing on how South Carolina fits Boeing's plans for growing its market share and profitability. In the end, our state and its work force had much to offer for the second Dreamliner assembly plant.

And we got it.

And for those who don't believe suppliers can be mobilized and doubt our workers can perform at world-class levels and enhance Boeing's profitability, just watch.

We like it when folks from "off" think we're slow and genteel.

But don't forget, we're ambitious and resolute, too.

Think about it, Everett, there are two Dreamliner assembly lines in Boeing's plans.

South Carolina has only one — right now.