Why Detroit matters

[EMG]

There are always going to be exceptions, but ask college grads from around the country [[who are not from Michigan) and I'd bed 99% of them would laugh and say the very idea of locating in Detroit is laughable. Meaning it would be one of the last choices on their list for a place to want to locate for a job.

You're absolutely correct, but at this point I would say that would be just as much an "anti-Michigan" issue as "anti-Detroit" issue. Michigan is widely known around the country as the WORST state for unemployment, and Dumb Jenny is ridiculed by everyone who isn't stupid enough to believe that a state can tax its way out of a depression. If someone actually has the wherewithal and the ambition to invest in a college education with the hope of a commensurate career, why on God's green earth would they want to live in Michigan [[even if it's 200 miles away from Detroit) and pay those high taxes and have an EXTREMELY difficult time finding ajob when there are so many other places in the country where the taxes are lower, the jobs more plentiful, and even the climate much better?

Frankly, I threw my last snow shovel away almost a decade ago, and believe you me, there isn't a salary an employer could offer me that would be high enough to convince me to come back to Michigan. I'm perfectly content to see the Great Lakes in pictures and the winter weather on video newscasts.

And, from the employer point of view - why would an employer want to set up shop in Michigan? And pay those inflated union wages as well as the high taxes? No way - the smart employer goes to a southern right-to-work state so he can be competitive.

If and when Michigan wakes up, adopts a right-to-work law, and gets real on the tax issue, then and only then will it have a fighting chance - even though unfortunately there isn't much hope for fixing its weather.