Business Principles

Americans are people on the move. Every year, on average, one out of five Americans changes his or
her address. People move short distances, often from cities to suburbs. They also move long distances,
such as from the Frost Belt, the colder northern half of the country, to the Sun Belt, the warmer southern
half of the nation. As businesses relocate to where customers are located, they affect where other people move to in order to find jobs. For example, factories have relocated to the southeastern states, where wage rates are lower than in the Rust Belt - the north central and northeastern states where the major manufactur-
ing firms once dominated. As illustrated at the beginning of this chapter, the Quest Company decided to move from Ohio to Georgia to lower its labor and other costs.

The continuing movement of people from the city to the suburbs and from the north to the south has led to many unintended consequences. When families and businesses leave cities in large numbers, the cities lose the financial ability to provide high-quality services. As a result, crime and poverty have increased in some large cities. Many southern states such as Georgia and Florida have experienced rapid economic and industrial growth. When businesses move from the Rust Belt, they leave behind unemployed workers, closed factories, decaying towns, and homeless people. However, in recent years, political and business leaders have taken bold steps to revitalize cities and communities in the northern states.