BUT AT LEAST THEY'RE CULTURALLY COMPETENT. Charlie Sykes notes Toyota's decision to locate a factory in Ontario rather than Dixie. No, it has nothing to do with health benefits.

Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment.

The rot is not confined to the shop floor, according to Joanne Jacobs.

States spend nearly a quarter of a billion dollars a year on remedial writing instruction for their employees, according to a new report that says the indirect costs of sloppy writing probably hurt taxpayers even more.

And that's making due allowance for bureaucratese.