When Snyder was in Washington, D.C., three weeks ago for his first National Governors Association meeting, he and the other 49 guvs got customized reports from Harvard Business School Professor Michael Porter on how each state ranked on a host of economic competitiveness measures. Including D.C., Michigan ranked 51st -- dead last -- in these categories:
• Growth in gross state product per capita, 1999-2009.
• Growth in output per labor force participant, 1999-2009.
• Private wage growth, annual rate, 1998-2008.
• Employment growth, 2000-10.
In his keynote speech, Porter told the governors that all the data boils down to this: "Productivity determines wages. Productivity sets jobs. Productivity determines standard of living. This is the iron law of the modern global economy."
We might not like it. No one wants to see jobs lost, wages slashed. Yet Michigan has been the nation's biggest loser, economically, for so long that radical changes are imperative.
Snyder promised reinvention. That's why he got elected. He's not going for incremental change, nor should he be.
He's watching the protests and taking the temperature of legislators who must endorse his plan. But Snyder has also digested the data.
Don't expect him to blink.
Contact Tom Walsh: 313-223-4430 or twalsh@freepress.com
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