Michigan Is Depressed?
There has been a lot of media focus on our state over the last few days, as the Presidential campaign trail made its way through Michigan. Now this may be the first and last time I ever post about politics - but it hard to ignore the subject when your right in the middle of it. The major point point of interest here, is the platform that Republican John McCain was preaching in our state. Call it realistic or what, but it is suicide to promote that “Michigan is hurting” and that “manufacturing jobs are not coming back”. Misery does not always love company.
All the T.V. analysts thought it was a great approach - that somehow we would all relate to the message and jump on board. The only person that thought it was suicide was Joe Scarborough, and on his “Morning Joe” show stated that he thought the approach was crazy. Mitt Romney took the side of optimism and told the state that good change is on the way. A no-brainer strategy to me.
Michigan is a little depressed - but maybe its because the sun comes out once every 10 days. Or because we are the laziest State in the Country, and people just need to get outside and play once in a while. Or, perhaps, it is because our manufacturing industry is drying up, which has people moving out of faster than any other state. What do we do? I say “Innovate or Die”. It is time to re-tool the manufacturing base and focus on technology integration across multiple industries and media channels. There are amazing engineers, designers, tool and die, fabricators, etc. - in this state - and we just need to figure out a new way of utilizing their skills. Web 2.0/New Media - merging with Manufacturing/Engineering to create a hybrid industry?
Sounds like a pretty go mashup to me.