Michigan Needs a Crisis!

Toyota is creating manufacturing jobs all over America, except for Michigan. Why?

I could endlessly list the reasons why, but that's a waste of time. Let's just start with the most important reason; Michigan has given up! We've decided that business growth is not necessary to our future. We've also decided that the auto industry is too tough an industry for Michigan, and that the conditions to attract Toyota is too drastic for Michigan's morality and lifestyle. In other words, Michigan is too union sympathetic and too entitlement centric.

Now, I know the MEDC and the Governor would vigorously argue this point, but really, what are they doing new today to change Toyota's mind? I keep reading articles about Toyota's need to build five new plants around America to keep up with growth. What's more unbelievable is Toyota's wages are comparable to other auto industry wages. The fact is, Michigan has given up. The Governor, the Legislature, the MEDC, the Democrats and the Republicans have all conceded Toyota to other U.S. regions. The reason doesn't matter. But if Michigan isn't going to truly compete in Michigan (which is Michigan's only industrial cluster besides government), then the state is truly dead for business.

About two years ago, I represented a Michigan manufacturer before the MEDC. Without going into the specifics, the MEDC was "unable" to help. The "rules" for helping the company prevented the MEDC from really tackling the issues that plagued that employer. Well, that employer continues to make investments and add jobs, but not in Michigan.

The unfortunate reality is, Michigan is so poorly viewed by almost every business executive in the nation, that Michigan can only now turn opinion with radical changes. Can we do it? Yes! Is it possible to forge the will? Only if the "smart" people in Michigan give up on the old notions and embrace the new notions that allow other states to grow. However, I'm not optimistic, and I think we need a real crisis to change minds. Let's start a real crisis with Jennifer Granholm's speech tomorrow.

Jennifer Granholm's State of the State address Tuesday night should be watched by every Michigan citizen. I am more interested in the radical ideas that will make people very unhappy, then I am in the populist issues that everyone seems to agree on. That may seem strange, but I support creating a crisis environment in the state.

As I talk to my neighbors, I am disheartened by their lack of interest in the State's economy. Fewer and fewer Michiganders make a private sector living. More and more work for a government, a university, or the medical industry. The private sector economic woes continue to be a distant conversation, and not a direct threat to their livelihood.

But, that's how Michigan has always behaved. I vividly remember how seriously ill the state's economy became in the late 1970's before any substantive changes were made to revive it. Problem was, those changes were no where near decisive enough to tackle this slow drag to oblivion that Michigan is on today.

Until a crisis is created artificially or naturally, Michigan will continue its economic slide and the remedy will become increasingly bitter to swallow.