THINKING FOR OURSELVES

Valuing a new economy

By Shea Howell

Michigan Citizen, Oct.3-9. 2010

Over 4000 people attended the series of five meetings hosted by Mayor Bing and his administration. There should be no doubt that Detroiters intend to shape our own future. But the choices before us require a lot more debate and discussion and they also require a lot of new thinking.

One of the most important things to emerge in this process is how wedded the business elite is to the belief that our future rests in “reindustrialization.” The prospect of becoming the battery capital of the world is the most bandied-about idea in the media. Currently, the U.S. produces less than 2% of the batteries used in the emerging electric car market, but some analysis are promoting the idea that within ten years the state will see the creation of 62,000 new jobs, with Holland, Michigan, being the western anchor for a web of battery manufacturing facilities.