The reality is that those jobs are going to the highest bidder. And increasingly, that means southern states such as Tennessee, Mississippi and Georgia.

It might be tempting for Wisconsin, which is losing a General Motors plant in Janesville, to jump into the rapidly-escalating bidding war for a new plant.

But that would be risky, expensive and unwise.

Instead, south-central Wisconsin needs to concentrate on growing its economy using the strengths and advantages our region already has. That includes a growing high-technology sector, a world-class university, prominent health care providers, strong agricultural production, bio-energy innovation and an attractive quality of life.

Tennessee just offered $577 million in financial incentives to Volkswagen to build a plant and hire 2,000 employees in Chattanooga. Tennessee outbid Alabama, which offered more than $385 million in incentives, the Associated Press reported this week.

Last year, Mississippi lured a Toyota assembly plant to Blue Springs after delivering $294 million in financial incentives. And the year before that, Georgia handed Kia an estimated $400 million in incentives to open a plant in West Point.

Those plants promise to create thousands of jobs. But there's little assurance those jobs will stay put for the long haul. And will they be worth all the public investment it took to land them?

Here in Wisconsin, state government can barely balance its books on paper, much less package hundreds of millions of dollars of incentives aimed at luring a single employer.

The better strategy is to work hard with what south-central Wisconsin already has to expand and grow the regional economy.

Thrive, the area's young and ambitious economic development booster, is doing just that. Thrive's business, government, education and nonprofit leaders are building cooperation across the eight-county region to bolster the region's strengths. Thrive is focusing on helping existing businesses first and foremost, as well as building regional buzz.

That's the right strategy for the region's future. Desperately throwing huge sums of money at giant automakers won't work for Wisconsin.