[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by MIhome

Sound's good,stuff i've been saying,got one problem...you don't have any representitive's that are even half way aggressive.Hate to say it,but on the business end,they don't have what it takes.So that part of your plan is shot,the rest sounds pretty good.Ok,work with me on this(and you have to understand at this point i'm laughing my arse off)Some business rep from Michigan go's to persay the West coast to try to get job's to move to Michigan,He would get chewed up and spit out,period.Look at the state of dissaray in Michigan,it's job's,it's economy,do you honestly think,for one minute,in the world of big money and big business,That any of these "leader's" have what it takes,I think not.

Business are leaving California in droves too. Unfortuneately, they are not coming here, they are goinjg to the south. Michigan has a lot to offer. Aa well trained labor force looking for jobs, really cheap real estate both for commercial buildings and great places to live tfor executives/employees. Loads of avaialble water. An outstanding medical care system. Great schools and universities. Our infrastructure is outstanding although nearly worn out.

I think that there are four things keeping businesses away. Concern that the weatherwill drive away good employees. Really idiotic governments especially in Detroit. Union power. A government that is unfriendly to business both in taxes, regulations and court decisions.

Part of the problem is the negatives. Part of the problem is that no one is marketing Michigan. Heck even California is marketin in Michigan saying come here for the easy/fun life. Why are they doing that? The middle and uppse middle class is leaving California. They need to reverse that trend. Why aren't we marketing there to get them to come here?

[Peter B]

Legalizing & taxing marijuana would help the state immensely.

[pennel]

what about the light rail system, seems to me the factories that built
cars and trucks can be redisigned for light rail trains, our country needss
to use this for transportation and get away from the cars.Too many people on the roads making it impossible to get from a to b .
alot of factories could build buses that take people from the trains to the
cities and towns they need to go.

What do you think????

[Resu Eman]

Unemployment rates for February 2009 range: 3.9% Wyoming to 12.0% Michiganhttp://www.ncsl.org/standcomm/sclaborecon/EmploymentSituation.htmWhat do the states with low unemployment have in common? Possibly agriculture, or anything else that other states could consider developing. It may be that those states that have low unemployment, also have low dependency on factory, banking, and may have sparce populations. Just looking for trends... Need a better measure of unemployed talent...like the reduction in federal tax withholding tax per person, on a state by state basis, compared to the last 5 years...

[Dwatted Wabbit]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

Business are leaving California in droves too. Unfortuneately, they are not coming here, they are goinjg to the south. Michigan has a lot to offer. Aa well trained labor force looking for jobs, really cheap real estate both for commercial buildings and great places to live tfor executives/employees. Loads of avaialble water. An outstanding medical care system. Great schools and universities. Our infrastructure is outstanding although nearly worn out.

I think that there are four things keeping businesses away. Concern that the weatherwill drive away good employees. Really idiotic governments especially in Detroit. Union power. A government that is unfriendly to business both in taxes, regulations and court decisions.

Part of the problem is the negatives. Part of the problem is that no one is marketing Michigan. Heck even California is marketin in Michigan saying come here for the easy/fun life. Why are they doing that? The middle and uppse middle class is leaving California. They need to reverse that trend. Why aren't we marketing there to get them to come here?

If the voters never get any smarter, they will continue to vote for incompetent and corrupt leadership. YEAH! Because the union boss said vote for D, vote for D.

Lack of intelligent leadership, state and in motown. Motown proper is probably a lost cause. Numerous folks here have said Kwame would be elected mayor again if he ran.

The union atmosphere is probably too much. Important and necessary when they came in in the 1930s, unions have IMO become the problem they were created to solve.
Unions have and are the same problem that Wall St., Big Banking, and Congress have: They are greedy, corrupt, and are more interested in themselves than in the good of the nation. We could never have won WWII with these types running the states and nation.
Japan and (South) Korea have better and smarter leadership in the areas of trade. We have given away the farm. Democracies have historically died by suicide, and we are in the process.

Small businesses utilizing the vast base of skilled tradesmen could IMO help revitalize Michigan. We are looking at making a move, and we have some small business concepts we'd like to try. I don't want to be forced to use overpriced overregulated union help, though. That apparently has driven businesses over the Indiana border.
Notice none of the big overseas auto factories have settled in Michigan? Almost all are in the right-to-work south.

I have worked in MI and I've worked in other areas of the country. While spending several years at an auto plant, the problems created by the union were obvious.
Once hired, never fired is the worst.
There were so many lazy, useless, dead wood people drawing hourly pay doing nothing, it's a wonder any of the Big3 are still in business. I know of numerous people who abused the system horribly, because it was easier for management to accept it and pay vs. fighting a lost battle.

Keep it up and we'll look like England in another 20 years.

[Driller1]

Originally Posted by Dwatted Wabbit

If the voters never get any smarter, they will continue to vote for incompetent and corrupt leadership. YEAH! Because the union boss said vote for D, vote for D.

Lack of intelligent leadership, state and in motown. Motown proper is probably a lost cause. Numerous folks here have said Kwame would be elected mayor again if he ran.

The union atmosphere is probably too much. Important and necessary when they came in in the 1930s, unions have IMO become the problem they were created to solve.
Unions have and are the same problem that Wall St., Big Banking, and Congress have: They are greedy, corrupt, and are more interested in themselves than in the good of the nation. We could never have won WWII with these types running the states and nation.
Japan and (South) Korea have better and smarter leadership in the areas of trade. We have given away the farm. Democracies have historically died by suicide, and we are in the process.

Small businesses utilizing the vast base of skilled tradesmen could IMO help revitalize Michigan. We are looking at making a move, and we have some small business concepts we'd like to try. I don't want to be forced to use overpriced overregulated union help, though. That apparently has driven businesses over the Indiana border.
Notice none of the big overseas auto factories have settled in Michigan? Almost all are in the right-to-work south.

I have worked in MI and I've worked in other areas of the country. While spending several years at an auto plant, the problems created by the union were obvious.
Once hired, never fired is the worst.
There were so many lazy, useless, dead wood people drawing hourly pay doing nothing, it's a wonder any of the Big3 are still in business. I know of numerous people who abused the system horribly, because it was easier for management to accept it and pay vs. fighting a lost battle.

Keep it up and we'll look like England in another 20 years.

Great post!!!!

[Dwatted Wabbit]

Originally Posted by Driller1

Great post!!!!

Thanks, Driller1. It doesn't have to stay the mess it is.

The most critical shortage our nation faces today is the lack of skilled, ethical, courageous leadership. It's the path to destruction.

To paraphrase William Buckley, I think you could replace 90% of the House and Senate members with random choices from city-data and you'd probably improve things, whether in Lansing or Washington.

[needing more]

What about windmills? To create energy off the lakeshore? We have the most lakeshore of any state compared to AK, So why arent we using it to our advantage? Not to mention we would produce enough energy for our whole state... Wouldnt that help everyone in MI if we didnt have such high power bills?? pLus we could sell what we dont use to other states or even canada..

[MI-IRISH]

any business the politicians can't get their one-sided,un-visionary hands into