The Detroit News has an article on the exodus of college grads from Michigan.
This is interesting because Michigan is, I think, a leading indicator for the whole nation. Obama-type redistributionist, pro-labor, central-planning policies have been in place (and gathering momentum) in Michigan for the whole of Governor Granholm’s six years in office. When people see a bleak economic future, they often get up and leave.
There is a line in the piece that annoys me, though — that college graduates “drive the economy.” No, they don’t. Russia has a much-higher percentage of college graduates than the U.S. and yet its economy is listless. What drives the economy is production and innovation. College grads can contribute to that, of course, but the degree is neither necessary nor sufficient. And if the right economic conditions are missing (freedom, low taxation, secure property rights and contracts), even the most brilliant and highly educated people will produce little.