A new book by MSU professor Charles Ballard outlines a path for Michigan's economic success.
"Michigan's Economic Future" was written by the Stanford graduate in an attempt to identify the problems facing Michigan, specifically its heavy reliance on the manufacturing sector.
Ballard also worked on "Michigan at the Millennium," a book that he said was too tough for most people to read.
"It had a lot of good stuff in it," he said. "But it was over 700 pages. There was a fear that our target audience would look at this huge volume and say, 'I can't read this.'"
In Ballard's new book, he attempts to make the material more accessible to everyone — professionals and otherwise.
It took less than two years to write and publish the book.
"It was a lot of work. I mean, it's a couple hundred pages," Ballard said. "I wanted it to be the best I could make it."
In addition to identifying many of the economic problems Michigan is facing, Ballard offers some solutions that could help pull the struggling economy back onto positive ground.
Ballard said Michigan must make some fundamental changes.
"Clearly we are not in the best of shape," he said. "I think a lot of our policies are going in the wrong direction."
To restore Michigan's economy, Ballard suggests that more money should go into higher education. With a majority of Michiganians working in the manufacturing industries, it is necessary that we progress toward a more high-tech economy, he said.
"Michigan lags behind the national average in the percent of workers that are college graduates," Ballard said.
"We are underskilled. The future is in high-tech jobs and industry."
Ballard isn't the only one who feels that Michigan's economy is in trouble. Mordechai Kreinin, a university distinguished professor, serves on an advisory group that meets every year with the State Budget Office. Kreinin said it will be hard to redevelop Michigan's workforce.
"We are in the unfortunate position of having the highest unemployment in the nation," he said. "Everybody wants to diversify into high-tech. The problem is when a high-tech; company wants to decide where to locate, we can't compete with places like Silicon Valley or Boston."
Although a path for Michigan is outlined in the book, there is still work to do to get ahead, Ballard said.
"I think a big part of it is that we are victims of our past success," he said. "Those days are over, but the attitudes are slow to die."
