Transition of economy not easy, but imperative

Daniel Howes, business columnist for the Detroit News, discusses the transition Michigan needs to make from a manufacturing economy to one that is more diverse and knowledge -based.

Excerpt:

First, there is no painless path from struggling industrial hulk to prosperity, growth and economic diversity. Second, retreating to the past, where education was devalued and the factory floor delivered a middle-class life, is and will be a dead end.

And third, the tax-and-restructuring debate brewing in Lansing looms even larger than it did 24 hours ago. Policy-makers and the special interests pressuring them will either lay a foundation for Michigan’s sustained revival or saddle the state and its taxpayers with short-term gimmicks, more denial, more pandering and more pain.

Read the entire column here.