Michigan needs knowledge-sector jobs, says Crain’s Detroit Business columnist
Chad Livengood of Crain’s Detroit Business says Michigan is attracting the wrong kind of jobs that won’t have a long enough payoff in the long run.
Photo credit: General Motors
Michigan companies are constantly vying for subsidies and incentives from lawmakers with the promise of creating more jobs. This week, GM announced that it will invest over $7 billion in Michigan through 2024 to increase electric truck production and to build a new EV battery cell plant, which will yield thousands of Michigan jobs. But GM didn’t do this simply out of goodwill: to get these projects done, $600 million of direct Michigan taxpayer money is going to GM and its business partner LG Energy.
.We really have lowered the bar in the thirst to get a battery plant.” — Chad Livengood, Crain’s Detroit Business
Listen: How Michigan’s auto companies lobbied the government to spur economic activity in the state.
Guest
Chad Livengood is the senior editor at Crain’s Detroit Business covering public policy. He wrote a column titled, “Why Ford’s Corktown project may mean more to Michigan’s future than the next battery plant.” Livengood says Michigan is attracting the wrong kind of jobs that won’t have a long enough payoff in the long run. “We really have lowered the bar in the thirst to get a battery plant,” he says.
Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.
WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.
