http://www.statenews.com In a global fight for talent, Michael Boulus wonders why Michigan is so far behind the country and the rest of the world. en-us Foundry4 Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:09:03 -0500 Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:16:13 -0500 webmaster@statenews.com http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/8583/view Uhh…those tables on Grapevine’s sites are in 1,000s. State Legislators re-distributed over $2 BILLION collected from taxpayers, and over $350,000,000 to MSU. And, Mr. Boulus is lamenting a small PERCENTAGE increase…not the actual size of the increase, or the starting amount on which the percentage is based. If you look at the tables, Michigan looks to be in the middle of the pack in terms of appropriations/ capita, and in appropriations/ $1,000 of personal income. Can the Legislators give more scarce tax revenue to MSU? Perhaps…but at the expese of what? Roads? Bridges? K-12 education? Wed, 23 Jan 2008 12:04:59 -0500 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/8583/view http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/8584/view Sorry for the typo…“expense” Wed, 23 Jan 2008 12:07:39 -0500 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/8584/view http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/8607/view Michigan also ranked 50th in employment rate and average family income. Maybe – and gee, this is just me thinking out loud here – the state doesn’t have any money to give universities! What a concept! And how dare those legislaters spend money on hospitals and roads and police when the poor, down-trodden upper-middle class students are only given $350 million dollars. Those bastards! Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:58:10 -0500 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/8607/view http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/8691/view LOOK IN THE MIRROR Why is Michigan (and Michigan State) so far behind other states? Well, Econ 101 would note .. Very high costs installed during the good years of the auto industry, now hopelessly out-of-synch with its peers .. Unwillingness to change .. refusal to acknowledge reality .. self-entitlement attitude (“give us more money, and shut up”) .. Utter lack of knowledge about economics .. refusal to self-sacrifice (like the old tenured crowd, refusing to step aside for younger, less-costly faculty) .. thinking mired in the (distant past) .. Yes .. it seems as absurd as, well, a self-entitled white Democrat couple politically attacking a young African-American Democrat, and the Republicans defending the young African-American Democrat’s factual accuracy, and .. Oh .. there is such a couple? Never mind .. Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:16:13 -0500 http://www.statenews.com/index.php/comment/8691/view