What's killing Michigan's economy?

Eli Lehrer's answer:

So why is Michigan's economy so bad? The answer may lie in a mania for big projects, big business, and central planning. In fact, if big projects made for a healthy economy, Michigan would be booming. Over the past three decades, Detroit has gained a Jetsons-like people mover in its downtown, three new sports stadiums, a Las Vegas-style casino district, and two huge new auto plants. The same "big-time" mania infects every corner of the state. In Midland, a struggling burg with a half-vacant downtown, signs at the tiny airport--which offers direct service to only five cities--announce plans for a 21st-century terminal with a glass front and wavy roof. Even ghost town-like Saginaw has a big sports arena. While planners have been thinking big, the small stuff has been neglected. During its big-ticket building spree, Detroit lost all of its major chain grocery stores, all but one of its first-run movie theaters, and all of its department stores (discount or otherwise).

If you find such information more interesting than depressing, you might also want to read "Who Killed California?"

Comments

[kyle8]

I do believe in "big projects". Provided that the project is really useful (like the Hoover Dam, or TVA), and that it can be paid for without going into deep debt. AND that it does not devolve into an orgy of kickbacks like Massachusetts' big dig.

You really cannot trust any projects to a corrupt political machine as exists in some states like Michigan.

[Dave]

"you might also want to read "Who Killed California?""
I can think of no other way to point to a publication staffed by Republican operatives, written by a former Bush staff member.

Only the best, truly nonpartisan analysis can come from this.

[Ted Craig]

My father was in private practice as a patent attorney here in Michigan during the 1970s. He watched as all his small business clients left the state for the same reason - the price of doing business in Michigan was too high. The auto manufacturers and their unions worked together over the decades to drive up these costs, such as extremely expensive worker's comp. insurance, so they would have a corner on the labor market. The whole system is geared toward big projects.
That said, the grocery stores left Detroit proper due to theft, not central planning. We still manage to get by out here in the suburbs.