[GeminiGal]

Originally Posted by malamute

But why? if they're retired? It's not like they're looking for jobs.

Seems their friends are leaving and they don't want to be left behind. Kids that have left the state are trying to get their parents out as well. The mentality of it all is no one wants to be the last one left in MI.

[darstar]

Originally Posted by GeminiGal

Seems their friends are leaving and they don't want to be left behind. Kids that have left the state are trying to get their parents out as well. The mentality of it all is no one wants to be the last one left in MI.

We don't feel that way here in Superiorland !

[green_mariner]

Please read this:UAW to renegotiate labor terms, suspend jobs bank - Yahoo! News (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081203/ap_on_bi_ge/autos_uaw - broken link)

[vegan_rambler]

An interesting and lively discussion here! I grew up in a small town in southwest MI, went away to college in 1995 and haven't lived there since (more to do with wanderlust than anything, plus I didn't appreciate small-town life at the time). My parents both worked in a (paper) folder factory which closed and went to China about 8 years ago. Much of my family still lives in MI, and most are weathering the economic storm somehow, though unemployment and drug abuse are large problems in the area.

I've been working as a graphic and web designer since I got out of college, and lately my job allows me to work from anywhere there's an internet connection. With that in mind, and considering that my grandparents are all in their 80s, my girlfriend and I have decided to move back to MI in the spring (she also has family in MI, works from home and does some traveling for her job) to be closer to family. Another factor in the move is that my grandparents own a few acres of under-utilized land near a small town, and I want to transition from doing computer work to "real" productive work, i.e. getting my hands dirty and getting into small-scale farming.

I believe that our (national) economy is headed for a severe depression at best, and total <a href="http://www.energybulletin.net/node/47157">collapse</a> at worst, in which case I'd like to not be totally stranded (in a large city like I am now) among strangers as the shee-it really hits the fan. This country needs a HELL of a lot more small farmers, as our current "Agribusiness" model of huge monocultures and factory farms (reliant on enormous petrochemical inputs and synonymous with environmental destruction) is completely unsustainable and totally vulnerable to any interruption of cheap oil, the electrical grid, etc. So if I'm organically growing food for myself and my family and living cheaply on land that my family already owns, I'm not as vulnerable as someone who has neither the skills or the preparations to survive in very hard times.

So I expect Michigan's economy to continue to tank along with the rest of the country's, but the land is good for growing, and there's plenty of water / natural beauty to enjoy while we make the transition to a lower-energy lifestyle. I think family will be one of the most important assets any of us has in the future. I would advise people to start thinking about making their lives as collapse-proof as possible, investing in a strong local interdependent economy and figuring out how they'd get food, shelter, water and the necessities of life if everything in middle-class paradise suddenly went haywire.

A few excellent and pertinent books:
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Depletion-Abundance-Life-Home-Front/dp/0865716145">Depletion and Abundance</a> by Sharon Astyk
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Small-Possible-Life-Local-Economy/dp/086571603X">Small is Possible: Life in a Local Economy</a> by Lyle Estill
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Transition-Handbook-Dependency-Local-Resilience/dp/1900322188">The Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience</a> by Rob Hopkins
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Reinventing-Collapse-Example-American-Prospects/dp/0865716064">Reinventing Collapse</a> by Dmitry Orlov
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Peak-Everything-Century-Declines-Publishers/dp/086571598X">Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines</a> by Richard Heinberg

Yes, Michigan!
PJ

[Indentured Servant]

I think the last two major recessions were regional. In 1980, the coastal areas were booming, as well as Texas, despite thee national downturn. During the recession of the early 90’s, which was much less severe than the recession of the 80’s, the Southeast was booming. This time, however, nearly every part of the country is going to get hit hard. The boom States of Florida, Georgia and North Carolina now have unemployment rates well above the nation average. In the month of August, of this year, the State of Georgia lost more jobs than any other state in the nation, including Michigan. So my question is…..where are people going to go if they leave Michigan?

I think that if things get REALLY bad, Great Depression 2 bad, the State of Michigan might see an increase in population. Why, because when things get bad young people are often forced to move back with parents. There are a lot of young people that left Michigan for other states, but if they run into real hard times, they may be forced to move back with Parents in Michigan who own their homes. The service economy is artificial…..it cannot stand alone without the strong incomes from production workers with good paying jobs. Many of the boom towns of the last couple of decades grew from service based industries and corporate and production relocation from the north to the South. Now, however, companies and production is leaving the South for China, India, Mexico and the like. There service based economies will dry up like prunes, because it was mostly dependent upon population growth, construction, retail and the like.

Michigan is a lot more diversified than it has ever been in the last 50 years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics , the non farm payroll in Michigan is 4.2 million jobs. According to data released the other day http://money.cnn.com/news/specials/storysupplement/stateautoworkers/index.html Michigan has 242,000 auto related jobs, out of 4.2 million total jobs. In the past, like in 1980, Michigan had around 500,000 auto related jobs, out of a total of about 3.8 million total jobs. So when the auto industry took a big hit, we had massive job losses and the “black tag people” (Michigan license plates were black in the early eighties and when so many Michigan people moved to Texas in look for work….they were called the black tag people) where seen all over the country.

[Cliffie]

That's funny; we never had a special name for the Texans who poured into the state of MI at the same time, having heard there were jobs here. That two-way diaspora had to be one of the most expensive, dislocating, joke's-on-you misunderstandings in the nation's history.

[MI-IRISH]

I worked with a lot of people from texas...nice folks,but i think there is something in their water

[Giesela]

Judging by the number of posts on this forum about people looking for advice on moving to Michigan I'm not that worried about too many people leaving. I moved away in Jan 2004 and every time I come home the traffic on I-94, center of the state not Detroit, seems way worse than it was before. I always wonder "if everyone is moving out why does it seem like there are more people here than ever before?" I want to retire back in Michigan because it has plenty of rural beauty. If people want to move, fine.

[darstar]

Originally Posted by Giesela

Judging by the number of posts on this forum about people looking for advice on moving to Michigan I'm not that worried about too many people leaving. I moved away in Jan 2004 and every time I come home the traffic on I-94, center of the state not Detroit, seems way worse than it was before. I always wonder "if everyone is moving out why does it seem like there are more people here than ever before?" I want to retire back in Michigan because it has plenty of rural beauty. If people want to move, fine.

You will see...Just stay away from the Big rusty cities........there IS life in rural Michigan , you have to drive as far away as you can from Detroit , about 12 hours or so. Traffic won't be a problem.......

[GraniteStater]

Census Bureau released a report yesterday saying that the only two states that lost population in the past year were Michigan and Rhode Island.