Economists' crystal balls

let's see. where did michigan go wrong?

1. people forgot to put all their eggs in several baskets. i know that the auto industry is the biggest industry in the world, but it's in trouble. who's gonna bail it out? NO ONE.

2. people forgot to learn how to do anything else other than build cars. now no one has any other marketable skills.

3. people forgot that unions are only there to serve the democrats. that's okay if you are of the GIMMEE generation, but not so good if you have spent your life paying union dues and are looking forward to being laid off. who's gonna bail the UNIONS out? NO ONE.

4. people here spent the last hundred years doing what is best for themselves and let the state run itself on "autopilot". they figured, 'I'M GOOD, THE STATE MUST BE GOOD," well, it ain't necessarily so. they lost sight, and oversight of their politicians, and are now wondering what happened.

5. the people here have been convinced, (the voting people have anyway) that laws can change people's behavior. for every gripe they have, they expect a new law to be written, and the representatives of the UNIONS, er... i mean the people, are glad to oblige.

all these things, plus a few more equals a high state of panic when the GOOD people realize that they are no longer in the majority, and that the inmates are running the asylum. the result is not to tough to predict with a high degree of certainty.

michigan will fall, and those with enough money will come along and buy it all up once prices fall far enough. we have been killed from within just like the roman empire.

it wasn't lust, it wasn't murder, it was greed that killed michigan.

Michigan may lose 108,000 jobs next year, but contrary to what some might think, Michigan will not die. We will survive, and thrive, as this too will pass. We have been through hard times before, long before the auto industry came along.

Economist predict the future based on the past. They just don't go back far enough, or look ahead far enough.

what was michigan before the auto industry?

it was a supplier of wood. forrestry was the major industry. a great fire long ago stopped all that, and michigan was a poor farming state for a lot of years.

yes, we had plenty of fresh water, but no shipping industry to speak of, because the trees were all gone. now the shipping industry is long gone, forgotten.

what we are going to be left with is a bunch of empty, idle auto plants and two polluted great lakes.

with the majority of the jobs supporting that auto industry, and a majority of the citizens with their life's education invested in that auto industry, it's going to be a long row to hoe to get them back into doing something different.

michigan's only other industry seems to be promoting unions, now useless because of the economic collapse. (they can't be a problem if they can't charge union dues)

we grow sugar, corn, beans, and cows. but then again, so does every other state in the midwest.

with the last hundred years given over to living the automobile loca, those that cannot farm probably cannot long endure.

let's hear it for those independant spirits who broke with tradition and did something else other than build cars. they are better prepared to live through this coming crisis.

As usual, the right has it's history wrong. A great fire had nothing to do with the decline of the lumber industry in Michigan. The fire, rather both of them in the Thumb, ten years apart, were the result of burning stumps and brush left over from the lumbering industry. This made way for farming. The Thumb is also becoming a serious wind energy producer, with wind farms in Elkton and Ubly.

The forestry industry has never really ended in Michigan. It still is a major part of our agricultural mix.

Western Michigan is a furniture manufacturing center, and shipping is still important to our state.

The auto industry may be down, but it is not out.

The rumors of Michigan's death have been highly exaggerated.

Sometimes you get the feeling certain people want Michigan to fail, maybe to reinforce their negative views of life in general.

Jmangan has it right.  You can't believe most economists.  The economists you should be listening to are the Austrian economists.  Everyone else is just guessing.  

Michigan can be a successful state again.  But we have to understand what to do.  This Keynesian crap will lead to a worse economy, an exodus from Michigan, and wasted resources.  

If we apply Austrian economic principles, the natural power of working Michiganders will lead to the most beneficial economy that can be had.  We have a competetive advantage in fresh water, lumber, the Great Lakes, automobile and other advanced manufacturing, a skilled workforce, four seasons, fruits, and tourism.

What we lack is the entrepreneurial spirit that once lived in Henry Ford, H. H. Dow, Bliss, Monahan, and Kellog.  We've made sure to crush it under state (and federal) regulation and taxation.  We've made sure that it is penalized at every turn.  We've forced unions on productive companies until they fail.  We've allowed special deals for one group at the harm of another; no level playing field here.  We've denied owners of land the right to use it productively.  We've allowed the growth of government 'til it has be come as a fatal cancer on our economic body.  

We need to listen to the lessons of Austrian economics now.  We can no longer bear the heavy burden of doing the wrong thing and getting away with it.  We are sick and not strong enough anymore to keep that up.