The folks at dbusiness gave me a great opportunity to do a long essay on our prescription for improving the Michigan economy. You can read it here. The article went to print before the new 2008 state data came out on both per capita income and college education attainment.
So here are the latest data. The first table is the top ten states in per capita income. The story is the same as in the article: two paths to prosperity. High energy prices for Wyoming and Alaska. And strong knowledge-based employment and earnings, driven by high college attainment for the other eight.
The second table is for the states that lots of folks argue Michigan should be like. Same story in 08 as 07. Michigan would be better off if it were more like Minnesota than Alabama, North Carolina or Indiana.
