yes, third world economy.
I lived in AL (by the way, BMW has plant in SC).
Those are non-union jobs (not something to be proud of). I worked for consulting company that was involved in deal with VW. Huntsville in AL was finalist with Chattanooga. Reason why Chattanooga got plant is better education, since unions (those evil monsters) in Germany pressured VW to choose location where, guess what: kids of German employees can get decent education. Then, VW wanted to unionized workers in TN, which of course state legislature n TN went crazy over it and of course never happened.
Most of those companies do not have HQ's in South East for a reason. It is not all about wages, but public schools, available highly educated work force etc.
AL was for a long time favorite spot for these companies since they could pay lower wages then in TN or GA. However, politics in AL went nuts in 2009 with all that attempt to have crazier immigration law then AZ (a lot of lawmakers in AL were offended that AZ would be labeled as crazier state then AL, so they went to do some hard work). Although foreign companies were warning left and right about that law, they passed it. Few days after law became effective, some local Wyatt Erp in Tuscaloosa arrested MB executive for not having all papers with him, and since then only Airbus fulfilled its operation of bringing plant to Mobil. But AL never got any new meaningful FDI after that. Kumho and others opening in La Grange is because of KIA there and Hyundai in Montgomery, AL. Problem in all this is that these companies are not opening design centers etc. in those states. Those jobs are reserved for CA, MI, NY, NJ etc. Hyundai has plant in Montgomery, but most operations, including all financial operation of Hyundai is in CA.
Do not get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with one job opened. But problem is that most of South East is not working to attract true high paying jobs. Now, TN is doing a lot of stuff different then let's say AL, MS or LA.