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Originally Posted by Handro
This is my concern. The Midwest has a huge hill to climb to attract people, and it will take a lot of pragmatic maneuvering to get some momentum back. I don’t think there is political will in places like my home state (IL) so I think the decline will continue unabated. At least the northeast had lots to offer in the way of natural beauty to make up for the shit weather.
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Michigan and Wisconsin do have lots of natural beauty they can leverage. Places like Door County, the Apostle Islands, and Traverse City should be leveraging their natural beauty to bring in more outdoorsy, work from home types.
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is another area that has not been marketed well.
There's no denying that the Great Lakes is in trouble demographically. The oldest Baby Boomers started retiring in 2011, and the oldest Baby Boomers won't begin retiring until 2029. So we're in the middle point of an accelerating exodus of older folks to the South. Baby Boomers who stay in the region will start dying off en masse by 2040. So we're 20 years away from another demographic cliff, and the Great Lakes (and Northeast) are disproportionally impacted.
But that trend is inescapable and the only solutions are: (a) international immigration (which the region has an aversion to) or (b) attract young people, which requires providing something of value, most likely high-paying corporate jobs.
The Northeast has figured this out (look at Boston's biosciences, New York's financials and entertainment, Philadelphia's telecoms and chemicals, Pittsburgh's healthcare or Washington's tech/defense sectors). The Great Lakes needs to copy. It seems the Rust Belt keeps waiting for de-industrialization or de-globalization to hit, and it never arrives. Even Trump's work to destroy the supply chain dependence on China has simply shifted manufacturing to Southeast Asia. Reshoring and repatriation have been duds (look at all those promised plants like Foxconn Wisconsin that always fall through).
The Midwest needs to stop waiting for industry to come back. It won't. They need to reinvent themselves.
Ironically, the only state that has done well in creating a modern business ecosystem (Illinois) is struggling demographically due to other issues (corruption, high taxes, local mismanagement, crime, pension liabilities, Downstate Republicans fleeing to Missouri or Indiana).
Weather is absolutely a factor. But Minnesota shows that weather is not determinative if a State can provide a good, affordable life with high-paying jobs to young people.