Leaving Michigan Behind

Skilled and educated workers are fleeing the state

This story from The Detroit News brings us further confirmation that the economic environment in Michigan is forcing people out of the state in order find jobs that are fast disappearing in this once great midwestern state. As I, and many others have pointed out, it is Democrats and the big labor unions that have run Michigan for decades. Now we are seeing the long term results of their policies in the form of falling employment, rising taxes and collapsing businesses. Other states that have been similarly run by Democrats for years and years such as New York and California are also suffering from severe economic problems and for many of the same reasons. But Michigan is a good case study because it was at one time such a major economic powerhouse of the American economy. Michigan was at the heart of America's auto manufacturing and heavy industry. But things have changed and not for the better.

If one can count on anything, one can be sure that Democrats and the left will always raise taxes, will always create a hostile business climate, will always increase the levels of government required regulation of every facet of economic activity they can, will look for more and more ways to strangle creativity and business creation, and will always find ways to punish the most productive people while rewarding the lazy and indolent. It is as predictable as a law of nature.

And just like a law of nature these policies, when put into practice as they have been in a state like Michigan, will have consequences that are as completely predictable as they are destructive. In the state of Michigan, therefore, conditions have reached the point at which people and businesses can no longer function. The people who live in the state and see this happening are now pulling up stakes and moving out for good because it is the only way that they can survive. The government of the state has literally made it impossible for these hard working and productive people to exist in Michigan. If they stay, they will end up impoverished as the government takes more and more of their wealth. And so they are leaving in droves.

And it is not just a random selection of people either; the ones who are moving out are those who are most educated and productive. It is these individuals who are always targeted by the Democrats for looting that allows the left to "spread the wealth" around to other people who have become permanent wards of the state. But that can continue only so long as the productive are present and continue to produce wealth to loot. What happens to the sclerotic socialist edifice when the victims refuse to cooperate?

Years ago, for those of you who are too young to remember, there was a popular phrase used to describe this phenomenon; "Brain Drain." It was used in connection with the loss of population that affected Eastern Europe after the advent of communism after the end of WWII. For a time, before the communists closed their borders, the best and brightest of Eastern Europe fled the communist utopia in favor of Western Europe or America. The communists who ran things could not afford to allow their victims to escape, so within a short time the borders of the communist world were closed to the rest of the world. The socialist utopia became a prison from which escape was punished by death. Barbed wire, machine guns and land mines made sure that the most productive people were chained to the communist vampires so that a constant flow of blood could be ensured.

Fortunately Michigan has no such border. At least not yet.