The economy is a big, complex, constantly-moving thing, filled with questions, answers, and always some things getting better and some things getting worse. You can’t really take any one piece of it in isolation to see how things are going for people, but you can mash them all together and see what the trends show.
So…how’s Michigan doing?
Here are Five Fast Facts on Michigan’s economy…and its path to improvement:
- 🍁 Who Says - The Fraser Institute is a Canadian organization that studies things like government policies, entrepreneurship, and choices that impact normal people’s lives. They put out an index each year that ranks each state’s economic freedom based on government spending, taxes, and regulations. In the most recent Frasier report, Michigan was ranked #31 overall in economic freedom. And yes, many of them have pocket protectors.
- 🤷 Current Conditions - State unemployment is 3.9% (same as the national rate), the number of employed people in the state rose by only 0.9% (the national rate is 1.8%). The labor force participation rate is 61.7%, lower than the national average of 62.3%. This just means the job growth has been slower than most other places.
- 💰 Cha-Ching, Baby - The first key measure is government spending. In Michigan, the size of the government relative to its own economy came in at just 28th. This means the state needs to better control its spending. Yeah, that’s a real shocker.
- 👍 Taxes, Taxes, Taxes - The second key measure is taxation. In short, high tax rates stifle investment and spending. Michigan ranks #19 here, not great but at least it’s above the middle of the pack. B minus work, woo-hoo!
- 📝 Reg This - The third key measure is regulation. Like tax rates, the more regulation there is, the harder it is for businesses to…well, do business. Michigan ranks a measly 38th on this, which is really not great at all. Apparently we like our red tape!
🔥Bottom line: We’re getting some things right, which is great. But there’s a whole lot more than we need to fix. Lower taxes and less regulation gets government out of the way, which then allows people and businesses to grow, expand, and succeed. Seems like something we should want…so why aren’t we getting it?
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