I’ve heard two startling things recently in Gov. Granholm’s ads.
One is that Michigan needs to grow. Why? Growth for its own sake has no value. What we need is something specific: sufficient employment for Michiganders. It doesn’t matter how many of us there are. Quantity is nothing. Quality everything. I know that “growth” is a nice buzzword—I just wish they’d say something with a little meaning. Nobody needs any “growth”—they need a decent job.
The other ad said there is a “$2 billion jobs fund.” What’s that? It boggles the mind. What could a job fund be except “money for workers”? But aren’t bosses supposed to pay that? If a non-employer-paid fund exists to pay workers then, by jove, I want some of it! I mean, I demand it! It’s enough to give someone heart palps. There is money out there for workers? For training them, for anything? I’m a worker! It’s tooth’n’nail to not go under. A little fund would be nice. A new fund source other than me, the employer! Or, if I misunderstand, somehow, the only possible meaning of the words “job” and “fund” then at least let me hire a worker with some of that fund! I want to put Michigan to work! Heck, I’ll use all $2 of that fund tomorrow and get rid of the whole unemployment problem in Michigan! Obviously, I miss the point. But the ad doesn’t help me to get it. What other point am I supposed to get from that ad? The ad mentioned something about drawing work to Michigan. Well, let’s use that fund to draw some work outta me! Or, I’ll draw some workers. A checkbook connected to that fund is all I need.
Whew, it is indeed enough to almost give me a panic. I’m trying to sell rare books and handy, quality luggage every day to create just one tiny little job fund. I don’t know what the governor sold to get her $2 billion fund, but my hand is raised! Over here, Gov’ner!
Hmmm, I just looked up the Gov’ner’s website about all this. They’ll use this fund to work with other investors. So does that mean it’s an investment fund? –Designed to get a return? Will it be publicly traded? Will it perform? Is it intended to perform? If not, isn’t it just a bad fund, a losing fund, just spending money. If it’s “spending money to make money” then in the end it’ll make a profit—and can be traded. Oh well, I don’t know this stuff. I just have a *hunch* that I won’t see any of it—and that no actual Michigander will either, not in a real way, a way that earns more than it costs. Someone will get it, though! –Someone who doesn’t need it. I mean, MOST of it. If some new worker gets some, then someone else is surely going to get plenty above and beyond that cost. And it won’t be a Michigander if this $2B fund isn’t meant to be profitable—I mean, if it doesn’t make a profit, we’ll pay out more in taxes than it brings in. If it DOES make a profit, is it doing it better than some other entity could? Is it competing against other such funds? Whups, I’m beyond myself again.
www.michigan.gov/gov/0,1607,7-168-23442_21974-132174–,00.html
www.michigan.org/medc/21stcenturytour/overview/index.asp
I note that my reaction isn’t political or even economic. It’s just the reaction of one Michigander who is trying to be employed in Michigan and is, furthermore, doing his best to boost other Michigan businesses of the best sort to rely on. Big corporations come and go: the local indy spirit stays! It comes from an area. It’s of the terroir—the dirt that a vineyard grows in, which gives it its qualities. Buying local is the only way to build up a state per se. What’s special about Michigan anyway? What do we need to be ourselves?
This brings up perhaps what is today perhaps the biggest force for change: companies that do manage to sprout up and prosper (anywhere, not just Michigan) have to contend with a national climate of greed expressed at all levels. At the level of management and leadership it is expressed in the “gut and cash out” method. So…you get a local company built on the talent and labor of a unique team. The owners then sell out to anyone and run off to condoville. The new owners often liquidate. Bye-bye company. Often this is part of a consolidating-empire dynamic. Welcome to Mergerville—a force that has spelled the destruction of companies and competition nationwide. Another face of this is the hostile take-over, where a nifty little company is bought against its will then usually gutted for the quick-cash fun of a few. Remember when all this first came around in the Reagonomics 80’s as the popular new way to do biz? Did the jobs trickle down? Here and there they did—with 100-mile commutes. Any security? Nope—your nifty new company might last a couple years then get gutted—then you have to move, as various parts of the nation experience the merry-go-round. What is left for culture or community to root into? Nothing. The collapse of America along with its local values is the result. The chickens have roosted. But they aren’t finished yet! Of course it’s a complex situation, but this seems to be the main dynamic of the leaders. The indy spirit will ignore and work around it as best it can. Probably with less and less cash. Because guess where that’s going? There’s a frontier spirit happening all over again, as potlucks do what they can to replace civic centers. It is a little sad, though, when community documentaries pop up from time to time like one did about 10 years ago in our town. It was titled something like “The Way It Was.” It showed the Lansing area over the years and up to about the 1970’s—and it was an area with several towns and local recreation areas. All highly developed and appreciated. Those community centers and local getaways were all nuked in the 80’s burn-down. We’d have to rebuilt from scratch. Well, you know it’s hard to keep the people down. We get into rustic lifestyles now.
Thinking of trickledown, how do the rich live these days? They’re leading the rest of us, right? Well, I don’t know what the people in the several new meadow-mansion areas do. I ride/run/ski/canoe through and near them and haven’t ever seen a person. I hope they have nice dinners, parties. I hope they have longterm visiting artists, scientists and such staying in their guest wings. What else is a huge house good for? I know…cocooning. But folks have to come out, have to throw down, right? I suppose they’re both working 50 miles away, driving a lot, kids away at boarding schools, then everyone away to out of state or foreign condos. No time for the meadow mansion, poor thing. Well, at least our capitol city got a restaurant back, finally. Yeah, the capitol was without a restaurant for a few years there. Funny. I saw that the staff was really young—it’ll take awhile to replace the corps of professional public service people that were nuked in the 80’s. But who am I kidding, they’re not coming back. Turn-key rules! Senators can get pizza like everyone else now—or pizza-like expensive food. Trickledown is right! Probably a lot of senators are fairly young these days. They don’t remember what a city or community was like. Or, if they’re older they’re the folks who did the sell-offs.
Of course, a lot of the locals are no great shakes to hang out with. Not only management has forgot their roots. Crack and meth have done their part to wreck the towns, too. There’s plenty of blame to go around. Still, leadership has to own up to the lion’s share, trickledown and all.
And, wow, we sure have had a lot of uplift from the major golbal education institution in our midst! MSU must exert some good forces but, whew, it seems like the main value is getting ahead. What kind of civic payoff have we seen from that? NOTHING! A tanning salon with flaking plywood siding has been the main store on the main college town corner for 15 years. Just replaced by a chain store. MSU brings in talent from around the globe: main value and impact: *transience.* Sigh. It’s a way station, a stopping point. What kind of international people study or move abroad? Probably those with fewer cultural roots. –Just the dynamic we need here. Well, at least they’ve created restaurants and grocery stores with owner-operators, mature staff and family connections. That’s good. I don’t know what the second generation is going to think of the situation, though…
