Caterpillar in Seguin

 The parade is over, all the confetti has been swept, and credit has been given to all who participated in the acquisition of a new Caterpillar plant in Seguin Texas.
 This all happened in Dec and Jan and it's really been quiet for the last 10 months. Last week the Quarterly Stock Report came out and CAT's 3rd quarter profit was down over 50%, but a positive outlook was noted for the future.Caterpillar 3Q profit drops 53pct, sees recovery The Associated Press There was a lot of incentive given with the State of Texas, giving 10 million, City of Seguin giving 10 years of tax abatement's and Texas Department of Transportation giving 1 million to make extra exit lanes on Interstate 10 for the trucks coming to the plant. This construction project is the second largest in Texas. All this left me wandering what does this mean for the average Seguinite? Jobs and more Commerce for the people? It was stated that Cat would demand that all the suppliers set up businesses in Seguin. I haven't heard of any yet and haven't seen any other construction projects going yet. I also haven't heard any announcements of the 1400 jobs that would be available except for  an unconfirmed grapevine comment that Continental acquired a contract with Cat and they were hiring on the spot. I noticed that Concrete was produced on site. While researching, I found out that this area is one of the countries largest producers of concrete, but I'm not sure if any of our local contractors benefited or not. I also saw a really nice pond developed at the Cat site, I wander if they will produce their own water and treatment. It was publicly stated by a high profile seguinite that Seguin was a  resilient small city in Texas and a Rosie picture was painted, from what I can see there are a lot of vacant buildings for rent or sale, it reminds me of the oil bust of 1980. It is also noted that seguin has an ample skilled workforce to support businesses. This bothers me deeply because what this really means is that there are a lot of people willing to work for 8 dollars an hour here and that's just not right. Some argue that, at least we have 8 dollar an hour jobs where other places don't. It was stated by a Cat exec that the production jobs would average 12 dollars an hour, I wander if some of the Alamo group employees are looking at increasing their earnings. I also have to stop and think about the people in Peoria Ill. and South Carolina that have been laid off. Until yesterday they were hoping that the Obama visit to Peoria and the hope of a stimulus would mean a return to work as stated by Cat CEO, but yesterday Oct 26, 2009 Cat said that only 550 would return. A stated total of over 30,000 employees have been laid off, don't be surprised if we start seeing out of state license plates here in Seguin.It was also noted that Cat will have a Jobless Recovery, what does that mean for unemployed worker? Caterpillar cuts 2500 laid-off workers I think Hope and Faith will prevail through these times and things will get better.