My old friend Greg Kaza, who represented a district in the Michigan House in the 1990s and now heads up a think tank in Arkansas, has this fine column on NRO. He points out that Michigan’s economy has been floundering for years, under both Republican and Democratic administrations. Why? Political intervention. Not only is the state heavily laden with regulations (like the onerous “prevailing wage act”) and obstructionist labor unions, but it also followed the siren song of governmental efforts to target and support new businesses. The spontaneous order of the free market works far better, especially if government keeps taxes low and meddling to a minimum.
I have read that one thing the current administration of Governor Granholm is yakking about is the need to make Michigan more attractive to highly educated people. They set up a commission headed by the lieutenant governor and it concluded that the problem is that college educated people are leaving, a classic case of mistaking symptom for cause.
