Anyway, I hear comments to your blog about how can liberal policies have caused this? I am a
chemical engineer and when I graduated from college (University of Michigan) in 1975 Michigan
had a vibrant chemical and process business economy. However, I remember Attorney General
Frank Kelly waging his war against that same industry. I remember the unions striking one chemical,
pharmaceutical, and food processing plant after another. The result was obvious. Not a sudden
move out, rather a slow disinvestment in the state. Plants didn’t shut down immediately, There just
was no investment. So departments and plants slowly rotted until one after another they were shut
down. If you don’t want business, it isn’t going to stay for long.

Michigan could have a strong chemical business but most are gone and those that are left are
just rumps of what they were. Michigan could have a strong food process business but who wants
to deal with the environmental hassle? So, most the plants are in northern Indiana or northern Ohio.

Michigan’s economy has caved in because they drove everybody out except the auto business. This
took 30 years. Now, the only one left is dying. So, what happens? The state dies.

I can’t imagine escaping. I mean, I love it here. The whole poverty thing sucks, can’t find a job, roads suck, but I can’t imagine living anywhere else. There are other places with the Fall season, there are other places with hot summers and cold winter, but they aren’t like this place. I love all the old rusty cars. I love all the dilapidated houses that are still lived in. I love how most garages are larger than the house it sits behind. I love how sometimes there are multiple garages and barns larger than the house. There is too much to love.

There is also a lot to hate. The economic troubles are Bush, or Englers fault heh. We don’t know how to use those blinkey amber lights on our cars(turn signal). Our schools are poor. Our situation is horrible.

Michigan will never perish, we’re too poor to move and Uncle Sam takes care of his unemployed unskilled(not old job) uneducated(college) nieces and nephews.

I’m surprised Montcalm County is only 76th in Michigan in unemployment at 11.9%. Since we have 83 counties some other places have it bad too. We’re poor, under educated, and we overwhelmingly buy into whatever the snake oil salesmen are selling. I’m lucky enough to live in a “rich” enough household that we have no money after paying for my brothers college.

I am a Michigander born in Cadillac and currently living in the U.P., I just want to point out that It doesn’t matter which side of the political spectrum your opinions fall, Michigan has and does continue to suffer and every 4 years each side plays the blame game. The biggest thing I have noticed from every politician is they seem to think the state ENDS at Saginaw. The Democrats may keep us poor but the Republicans seem to like us that way. Whenever the federal government decides to replenish the military ranks, they set up shop. They know full well they have a whole state full of destitute unemployed,massively patriotic people.

The auto industry has been a blessing and a curse for Michigan. I know many auto workers truly believed that even their children would have a secure job future filling their shoes at retirement. I think Michiganders are learning that nothing is forever , and DON’T put all your economic eggs in one basket. I know entire families that have retired from GM and uprooted to other states so that the next generation can find work. Granholm seems to think she can fund the whole state on cigarette taxes. In the meantime Wal-Mart continues to push the outright LIE that they support small business.
For many of us that live ABOVE Saginaw Wal-Mart is the only place left to shop. They pump millions out of our economy to Bentonville and do not support our local newspapers or our local banks. I think the economic problem in Michigan has been created by such a HUGE spectrum of conditions.

Speaking as one of the little people because the little people are all that Michigan seems to have left , It often feels like it doesn’t matter if we wake up everyday and earn an hourly wage under the yoke of the corporation or under the tax burden of a failed economy because both have left us with little choice beyond moving away if we want a higher standard of living.
Many of us here at some point looked out our frozen winter windows or walking through untouched woods had a moment where we realized “Michigan is in our blood”. My mom tells me Michigan chooses it’s people and once it does no where else will feel like home.