Economy
The northern areas of Alabama contain a wide variety of industrial, manufacturing, and hi-tech corporations with both large and small operations. Each of the three economic centers in the region (Huntsville, Decatur, and Florence) have a distinct type of economic base. The Huntsville area is mostly dominated by hi-tech industries and federal operations such as Boeing and NASA. The Decatur area, in the central part of the region, is dependent mostly on industrial and manufacturing companies, such as General Electric and 3M, but some hi-tech and federal entities like the United Launch Alliance, who produces launch vehicles for NASA and other agencies, and the Tennessee Valley Authority also have roots in the area. The Florence area, also known as "The Shoals", is primarily dependent on industry and manufacturing, hosting companies such as Sara Lee, but also relies heavily on agriculture.
Read more about this topic: North Alabama
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“Even the poor student studies and is taught only political economy, while that economy of living which is synonymous with philosophy is not even sincerely professed in our colleges. The consequence is, that while he is reading Adam Smith, Ricardo, and Say, he runs his father in debt irretrievably.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.... for really new ideas of any kind—no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be—there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)
“I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical terms.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)