Michigan Sinks As Leaders Cling To Old Formulas

"To an astute observer of recent history and economics, the phrases 'Michigan' and 'recession' seem so closely aligned that they are almost indistinguishable. Except for an all too brief period in the 1990s, when auto and truck sales soared and the state's manufacturing sector employed 908,000 people, Michigan has, since the late 1970s, been steadily sinking like a waterlogged towel. The state is now drawing close to Louisiana, West Virginia, and the Dakotas at the bottom of the national heap.

Why this is happening is a story of wasteful patterns of spread out development, reckless neglect of cities, foolish disregard of the new economic factors driving the 21st century, and political gamesmanship, especially in Lansing, our state capital. For all intents and purposes Michigan is writing a modern narrative of distress and decline. The state is a vivid warning to the rest of America about the consequences of desperately defending in the 21st century the obsolete cars-fuel-highways-parking lot-drive-through economic development strategy that propelled the 20th."