Well, then the answer is to incentivize graduating students to stay in Michigan. How do you do that?

First of all you need to attract varied businesses, which I believe is happening now under Granholm. Energy, health care, education itself-

Furthermore, in keeping with the theme of renovation/ green architecture/green energy, what Michigan, and specifically Detroit needs to see are the trees in the forest!

Use the incredible depth of architecture in Detroit as a laboratory for historic preservation.

Develop through the local universities a degree program larger and more comprehensive than any others offered in the US, and use publicly owned buildings as experimental laboratories, with an end user in mind- whether it be for resale to private enterprise, a combination public/private usage- and make sure from the beginning there is a plan for the structure and it's eventual new use.

This has to be done on a large scale- call it a WPA style comprehensive university led program to target structures large and small, with emphasis on street-line preservation and enhancement, and fold it into the larger plan for the city with infill housing and sidewalk edge retail.

Now for the hook- give graduating students the incentive to stay by offering jobs through a private/public cooperation in related businesses based on merit.

Give these students a price break on continuing to use university housing for a limited time to get their careers off the ground, which would incentivize the universities to add additional housing units as well.

Offer university discounts to continue their education in state.

Treat the idea of being a Michiganian as a privilege.

At the state level, to encourage young, talented, educated people to stay, offer incentives such as MEANINGFUL tax breaks for mom & pop size small business startups [[not the SBA definition of small business, but the real definition, say, less than 100k in startup costs). Tax breaks for those willing to start families and put down roots.

Stop penalizing people for being poor- eliminate the aggregious practice of debtor prisons which both Florida and Michigan engage in to raise funds by tossing people into prison for not paying miniscule court fines.

End the practice of prisoners being used, and the system gamed to encourage prison as an alternative in order to provide private enterprise free labor for manufacturing purposes.

Local governments need to be held accountable, and removed if not doing the people's business.

Nationally we need to return to a tarrif based economy, which will cause us to be accused of protectionism, but is engaged as a practical practice by most nations including Japan and China, and in the short term will increase the demand for American workers building American products for Americans to buy. This is crucial if we are to have any semblance of a manufacturing base going forward.

These are systemic changes that need to take place, and like much of America, need to be done to drag our people kicking and screaming into the 21st century.

The answers are all around us, it's the naysayers who need to be shown how it can be done.