EDITOR’S NOTE: Last night, the Center for Michigan hosted a blunt dialogue between legislators and nearly two dozen entrepreneurs and young professionals. It centered on one question: what does Michigan need to do to attract and retain talented young people. Jack Lessenberry, Michigan’s ace political correspondent and a Center for Michigan Steering Committee member, attended the dinner and presented these observations on his Michigan Radio show.
By Jack Lessenberry
I attended a fascinating, off-the-record dinner in Lansing last night. It was sponsored by the non-partisan Center for Michigan, and brought a bipartisan group of legislators and some of us other old- timers together with young people in their 20s and early 30s, entrepreneurs doing their best to spark new life in this state.
There were about forty people in the room, and conversation was free-flowing back and forth between the tables. Suddenly, a word popped into my head that I haven’t much used in a long time.
Generation gap. Some of the legislators just couldn’t, or wouldn’t, hear what the successful young people were saying.
One especially eloquent young man from Ann Arbor asked if the lawmakers had any idea how much damage they were doing by zeroing out the tiny arts budget. An especially dense state senator didn’t seem to understand what he was talking about. The senator responded by parroting a moss-covered GOP talking point about reducing spending, then, after a time, stuffed some papers in a briefcase and left.
Other lawmakers, to my dismay, also drifted off, for the sort of meetings with lobbyists and constituents that fill up their days and nights. (And some with legislators with young children hurried to get home for bedtime stories.) These are frantic times, and even the new lawmakers were becoming delightfully cynical about the people they represent. Right now they are scrambling to balance a budget that is over a billion dollars out of whack. All day, they’d been getting calls from interest groups demanding “Don’t cut me.” In many cases, these were the same folks who also demand “don’t vote to raise taxes.”
But while some rushed off to appease their masters, a number of the brighter young lawmakers stayed to the end, and, I think, learned something. The young entrepreneurs weren’t interested in the usual dreary Lansing debates. That’s not the world they live in. What they care about was this state, which they see as a wonderful place to live. They want to make it better, and make it a place where their children and grandchildren can afford to live someday.
They transcended politics — but haven’t quite given up on it. Most of them don’t want to pay more taxes, but they also knew that civilization has a price. Virtually all of them thought the present political leadership of this state had essentially failed them.
They wanted, to my surprise, a strong governor capable of exercising leadership. They thought Jennifer Granholm had failed totally on that score. But they weren’t inspired by her opponents, or by any of the wannabee candidates for governor.
They thought our alleged leaders were all clinging too strongly to the remnants of the dying auto culture. They should instead, they believed, be trying to identify what was coming next.
But regardless, most of them seemed determined to hang in here and drag Michigan into the future. “Every year I think about leaving, and sometimes I do, but I always come back,” one young woman said. “This is a tremendous place to live.”
That, more than anything any of the politicians had to say, gave me a strong glimmer of hope.
6 Comments
A question for Mr. Lessenberry – Did the “eloquent young man from Ann Arbor” say what “damage” he means by”zeroing out the (state’s) tiny arts budget”?
Would he like to run for the legislature?
As the Talent Retention Director for the City of Lansing, I’m dying to know… what was the conclusion??? What WILL keep young people in Michigan?
“The young entrepreneurs weren’t interested in the usual dreary Lansing debates. That’s not the world they live in.”
I can’t think of a better line to sum up this entire article. The entrepreneur world will always live at a pace that the politician will never understand. Entrepreneurs don’t have constituents that they must please, they only have to be successful. Entrepreneurs aren’t afraid to fail, as long as they fail fast – and aren’t afraid to start again after they fail. These two groups live completely different lives and it’s no surprise that they had problems connecting.
Andrea you ask a great question and one that I suspect is not as difficult to answer as you think. I believe that what the young and upcoming leadership ultimately is looking for is a government that looks forward, not back. Our history, although storied, colorful and interesting is not nearly as important as the here and now.
Entrepreneurs find ways to get it done, not excuses for why it can’t happen, can’t be changed or can’t be done. I think we are all looking for the same from our leadership in Lansing, reasons to collaborate, obvious action and behavior that talks to the best interests of the state first-not a single constituency, party, etc. Quite frankly I think the collective entrepreneurial community has little time for that type of petty nonsense. It comes across exactly as what is is, selfish. I know I have little time or interest in that.
Create the environment of a reasonable business tax structure that supports success, an incentive to get and stay educated, work to gain the same type of efficiency and effectiveness in government that we all strive for in our own businesses (e.g. – results) and we will supply the ideas, enthusiasm and energy. This IS a great place to live, no one needs to be sold on that. What we need is some behavior that represents the best of what we can be in the future, not the worst of what we have been in the past. Leadership should not be confused with popularity and Lansing should know that we are smart enough to know the difference.
I wrote this letter to the governor about 5 years ago and since then have our economy has continued to get worse every year since. They is plenty of blame to go around but that does not address the problem. I am sure of one thing getting a check in the mail every so often will not be the solution. It is going to take the imagination, ideas and willingness to work together to build a better Michigan and doing so build a better American. It can be done and the sooner we start the sooner we will see the results.
October 28, 2004
Dear Governor Granholm,
I am writing this letter in response to your position on proposal 1. I understand your position to the point that the State of Michigan is in need of money. How we achieve this on a long-term basis is what concerns me.
In my opinion gambling is not a long-term solution. It only provides instant gratification to a lot of people and also the dream that they will become rich and will not have anything to worry about. Once we have raised as much money as we can from gambling, do we in the future legalize the oldest profession known to man to make even more.
I personally feel that we can do better and feel that we owe it to our children and grandchildren to make an honest and concerted effort to give them communities build on sound principles that they can be proud of. I happen to feel that the more citizens of this state chase the dream of being rich by gambling in order to provide for them instead of doing something meaningful the future of our state is very questionable at best.
I am enclosing an idea that I had when this whole shortage of money and jobs came about.
Michigan Operation Imagination.
How it works.
Michigan residents will summit ideas for getting the economy up and running. (If this proves to be a good system other states might use it as a model.) It might be a new service that is provided or a new product that can be built. It might also be something that will improve an existing product so as to expand the market for it. When it is implemented, the person or persons that came up with the idea would be rewarded with a reasonable amount of reward. This could be a patent provided them with a certain percentage of the profits. It might also be something that needs to be developed and if it is determined that it is a worthwhile venture a certain amount of money would be allowed for developing a prototype. But the underlying idea behind it is to provide living wage jobs for the people in Michigan.
Most people have ideas but don’t have the expertise or money to implement them so they do nothing with them. I feel that the more people that get involved in building a real future for Michigan the better chance of its success.
(Place your bet of the people of Michigan. I feel your chance of success is better)
Sincerely
Dale Westrick Sr. Ph# 517-626-2256
I am not surprised by the reception, but am happy to hear that these talks are going on at all. Since I graduated from UM (with a BA, and later, after some time working, a JD) I’ve seen a huge number of my classmates leave the state (many forced to by job opportunities, others fleeing for “cooler” states or cities with young people and opportunity). When I talk to law students and interviewees now, I find a common attitude of “those who can get out do, and the only people who stay in Michigan to work are the undesirables or those with family ties they cannot break (yet).” These are not good signs for the future, and they are not going to improve on their own.