Rebuilding Michigan's middle class relies on higher education
There’s a well-founded worry in this country for the future of the middle class, which grew rapidly after World War II but has struggled over the past several decades.
In Michigan, the middle class is under siege as hundreds of thousands of low-skill, high-wage manufacturing jobs have disappeared.
What will it take to rebuild it?
A new study by the Michigan League of Human Services and New York-based research firm Demos argues Michigan’s future prosperity will hinge on the success of policies that boost the education and income levels of its young adults. (Click here to download a PDF of the study.)
Michigan’s generation of 20-somethings are not faring well in what some call a flat world where employers have access to the best talent, be it in Michigan or Malaysia. Here’s how the League study describes what has happened:
“Global competition has put downward pressure on American wages. Many of the new jobs created in the service economy—one of the fastest growing sectors in Michigan—pay less than the manufacturing jobs they replaced. Meanwhile many employers have slashed labor costs—cutting jobs, wages and benefits. The social contract has frayed and young adults are living with the consequences.”
The real median earnings of Michigan workers aged 25 to 34 have fallen 10.3 percent between 1985 and 2010, from $34,110 to $30,600. Michigan workers in their 20s are earning 10 percent less than the national average.
Women between the ages of 25 to 34 have seen real median earnings rise a bit over the past 30 years, from $28,845 in 1980 to $30,000 last year.
But the wages of men in that age group have plummeted as many of the factory jobs they held have disappeared, the League study found.
Their real median income has fallen from $47,634 in 1980 to $35,000 last year, a staggering 26.5 percent decline. Blacks and Latinos have generally faired even worse than whites in Michigan.
But the study found, as have many others, that education pays.
In 2009, Michigan workers aged 30 to 34 with a bachelor’s degree earned 47 percent more than those in the same age group with a high school diploma. Citing estimates from the Census Bureau, the study said that 62 percent of all jobs by 2018 will require some years of college after high school. But only about 35 percent of Michigan adults older than 25 hold at least an associate’s degree.
That’s far below the national average of 44 percent of adults who have an associate’s degree or higher.
Although more Michigan students than ever are enrolling in college, escalating tuition costs are creating a huge financial burden for families.
Those costs are in part due to declining state support for universities and community colleges. Michigan ranks 10th lowest in the nation in taxpayer support for higher education, according to a new report by the State Higher Education Executive Officers organization.
The League study contains a long list of recommendations to improve the educational and economic prospects of young adults.
Some of them, such has making it easier for workers to unionize and providing universal child care, have little chance of being implemented in a conservative political climate.
But others, such as increasing financial support for higher education and creating a national public jobs program, cannot be dismissed if we want the middle class to survive. Email freelancer Rick Haglund at haglund.rick@gmail.com.
Comments
InsideTheHall
Tue, Jun 28, 2011 : 12:38 p.m.
Oh come on Rick, cost of education has gone up because of shrinking funding? Get real, when will the academic elites take a shave and a haircut to bring down the cost of education....after all it's to help the kids....right???????
Mike K
Fri, Jun 24, 2011 : 1:44 p.m.
Socialism doesn't work. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/world/europe/23greece.html?scp=1&sq=greece%20socialists&st=Search" rel='nofollow'>http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/23/world/europe/23greece.html?scp=1&sq=greece%20socialists&st=Search</a> Capitalism and Free Trade offer the best opportunities for all Americans, and that is the American promise. We don't need the statist equalizer so many seek here. Competition fosters the best from the collective masses. That's exacly why foreigners seek American education and health care.
John B.
Wed, Jun 29, 2011 : 9:14 p.m.
More phoney baloney from the RepubliKan talking points list. Yes, capitalism can work well, but only if it is regulated properly and fairly. Ask Alan Greenspan, the "completely free markets will always find a perfect balance" guy that nows says he was deeply wrong when he was the Fed Chairman. The whole reason that we have a government is to set a reasonable framework of laws and regulations to protect the many from the few. Some things are done for the common good. Otherwise, you have anarchy and despotism.
wereintroubl
Fri, Jun 24, 2011 : 6:23 a.m.
To think that we can educate ourselves out of the sell-out of America we call globalization is flawed. Simply speaking, the person taking your order at the fast-food or stocking the shelves at the big box retailer will now have an associate's or bachelor degree instead of a high school diploma. Next time you go to Applebee's or Chili's, look at the number of servers in their 30s, and 40s. I bet if you ask them, many will have a college degree. With globalization, the job goes to the lowest bidder: period. Skills? I am sure there are many engineers and IT people in India that would come to the US in a heartbeat if you offered them $12 an hour. Remember, wealth is not created, it is shifted. The wealth of our nation, due to lack of trade policy and nurturing of our core industries, has been shifted to third-world nations and the pockets of executives.
outdoor6709
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 4:02 p.m.
I disagree in part with the headline, We need targeted higher education. Engineers and accounting grads find jobs. EMU, CMU, WMU and others are education assemble lines that produce to many graduates with NO job skills. How many people can society absord that have degrees in basket weaving and other useless majors that have 1,000 graduates for each potential jobs. Plus these students are saddled with $100,000 debt. Inflation was 1.7% last year, tution went up about 7%. How does that happen? Bad management? No, probably not after all we got $2,000,000 houses, new sports facilities, professors that do research and not teach. And by the way a study released a couple of weeks age said 65% of all research was unnecessary. For those of you that want to nitpick some minor point, have at it, but the broader point is this, We are again being asked to give more of our money to Higher Ed. What are we getting for the money and what are we willing to forgo to give Higher Ed more money? Bridge cards for students, bridge to Canada, EIC, sport camp for our kids, or maybe our vacation?
InsideTheHall
Tue, Jun 28, 2011 : 12:42 p.m.
You are spot on! A liberal arts degree will get you a job at Starbucks and they still have to train them to make a skinny carmel mac with an extra shot. If you do not have a skill that will bring value to an employer you will get paid $10 or less per hour.
Greg Gunner
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 2:46 p.m.
The middle class has been under attack for 2-3 decades with trade policies that favor foreign manufacturers. It's just another symptom of the greed overtaking our country. The wealthy aren't content to have excess money, they want more and more and don't care who they step on to get it. While wealthy executives benefit from lower wages overseas, the middle class is hit with lower wages or loss of their jobs completely. In Michigan's case we are now ruled by Slick Rick, a wealthy dictator, and a political party that whole-heartedly support this transfer of wealth from the lower and middle classes to the wealthy business owners of this state and their highly overpaid CEO's and other executives. Until middle class voters see the light and lower class workers begin to show up at the polls in greater numbers, greed will continue to rule our state and our country.
John B.
Wed, Jun 29, 2011 : 9:06 p.m.
Mike: Nice obfuscation. The very top super-rich (not the top half, again, nice BS there) pay about a 16% net Federal Income tax rate. This ridiculous repeated lowering of the taxes on the very wealthy has been going on for most of three decades now. We are slowly destroying the middle class in this country, and pushing it into the ranks of the working poor. The richest 400 households now have more net worth than the bottom 150 million households combined. When this imbalance gets bad enough, the end result will eventually be revolution. It's just a matter of when that might occur - 20, 50, 75 years from now? Hopefully, I'll be gone before it occurs, or people will wake up and stop the RepubliKans before it is too late, because it ain't gonna be pretty if/when it happens.
Mike K
Fri, Jun 24, 2011 : 2:02 p.m.
"Greed overtaking the country" - that's too dramatic Greg, too "emotional". We live in a competitive world Greg. It's nature. It's science. Greg - there is a huge transfer of wealth. The top 50% of income tax payer pay like 95% of all income taxes. It's called redistribution, and it is alive and well right now. Greg, I pay enough taxes (trust me) and don't want to pay any more. I'd like to either save it for my kids or spend it on my family, but if the government continues to siphon off these precious resources, I can do neither. How fair is that? And what's with your continued obsession with CEO's? Really? You are focusing on like 0.001% of our population. I know a few liberals who walk around spouting "tax the rich" yet they hire tax accountants to help them avoid taxation and preserve their wealth. Hypocrites they are.
marzan
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 2:28 p.m.
Our economy is now a knowledge based one. I've heard that for the last 15 years. If we aren't willing to invest in that knowledge based economy, what economy are we investing in?
alternativeview99
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 2:02 p.m.
I have a difficult time with some of this logic. First, it isn't the global economy that is the problem. That is only a symptom. The reason labor overseas is so cheap is because those countries have policies in place that allow business to operate without paying for all their costs, the costs of pollution clean up, the cost of worker safety, the cost of worker health. Second, education isn't the problem. One needs to ask who that education will benefit. Yes, I would like my house cleaned by an engineer and I would like to pay them just $5.00 an hour. The real culprits are the laws and regulations that have been enacted to strip the middle class of it's wealth. This has been done by maintaining a focus on the short term and its rhetoric.. Some laws need to exist for the greater good.... or our world becomes a gang war rewarding those that compete best by destroying the competition. For example, people need laws to require them to stop at an intersection when they see a stop sign. If we allowed freedom of choice, people would fail to stop and other people would get killed. And, companies need regulations in place to require them to clean up their pollution. A company can't be the only company, or even the first, to bear the cost of clean-up. Competitors that don't bear the burden of this cost would quickly out-compete in the market place. And, the middle class needs laws that ensure them a "fair share" of the wealth of this nation under standards that examine the division of wealth and not a batch of rules about playing a game that favors the wealthy. I don't believe that 10% of our society deserves 90% of it's income or that 5% of our society should control 50% of its wealth. It's that simple. And, I cannot support laws and regulations under whatever label you choose to call them or whatever scheme these laws are a part of if they support this type of division. And, last time I looked, I still have a vote.
leaguebus
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 4:46 p.m.
25% of the people of this country control three times the wealth of the lower 75%. This started with Reagan taxing policies, slowed under Clinton as he raised taxes on the rich and now going whole hog with some Republicans wanting even lower taxes. Our society is fast becoming what our founding fathers didn't want, an Aristocracy. Look at Paris Hilton for example. Instead of the English way of paying stipends to their Aristocracy, we give huge tax breaks. The middle class is taxed at a higher rate than the top 10% , plus all the middle class jobs are going away, because our companies are investing heavily overseas using the large tax breaks given to them by the likes of Snyder and his Republican cronies.
Ken Boyd
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 2:41 p.m.
Yes, sounds good comrade!
steve banicki
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 1 p.m.
Every article and editorial I read about education these days has two themes in it. 1. Someone must be held accountable for the success or failure of the school and, 2. The solutions discussed say nothing about the key element of achieving that success, poverty and the parents' role in education. The measuring stick for how well a school and/or teacher is usually some kind of standard test of the student and if the students are doing well it is concluded the teacher must also be doing well. This concept is seriously flawed. Read More: <a href="http://goo.gl/mYS8a" rel='nofollow'>http://goo.gl/mYS8a</a>
Steve Pepple
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 12:43 p.m.
A grammatical error has been corrected. Thank you to the reader who pointed it out.
BioWheels
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 12:08 p.m.
In order for the middle class family to send their kids to college, they first have to have a sound education K-12. With Governor Snyder slashing funds for public education and blaming educators for all of the problems in Michigan education, it appears that the Governor's plan to revitalize the Michigan economy is doomed. No surprise, since he isn't really pro-middle class anyway. Thanks Governor for making the Michigan middle class one of the worst in the country.
John B.
Wed, Jun 29, 2011 : 8:55 p.m.
Texas has the highest per-capita budget deficit of all 51 states. Try again, there, sport.
outdoor6709
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 4:57 p.m.
First of all Gov Snyder has olny been governer for 6 months. So it was Gov Granholm's policies which killed the middle class and make it necessary to impose restraints in spending. I assume you were "blown away" by the previous gov wonderful policies.
Ken Boyd
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 2:38 p.m.
@Mich Res and Alum. The State is broke, as is the Federal govt. and as such wages have taken a hit. We have been a nation running amok with a lifestyle that will never return. I regretfully propose that you are best served working in Texas, a Republican state that lives within its means.
Mich Res and Alum
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 12:19 p.m.
Yep... I'm a soon-to-be teacher and am looking for jobs. Every job that was offered to me in Michigan was offering laughable pay, a direct result of Snyder's tax cuts. Of course, I and most teachers don't "do it for the money," but I've got two degrees worth of loans to pay the federal gov't. I'd like to see Snyder offer an argument that I shouldn't be looking out of state adding to the highly motivated, educated, and skilled FORMER Michigan residents.
Smash Crasher
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 11:44 a.m.
What has basically happened is that Americans have been over-paid for the past 40 years for doing menial tasks, i.e., low-skilled manufacturing jobs that required literally no higher education, let alone a high school diploma. When an unskilled worker makes $60,000 a year for putting a piece of foil on a Hershey Kiss, well . . . Welcome to 2011 -- where the US is now are ensconced in a "global" economy. To stay competitive and basically remain in business, corporations, manufacturers, etc. are moving their operations to India, China, Brazil, The Far East, Mexico and Latin America. Why? Because they can no longer afford to pay said foil-wrapper $30 an hour. The argument from the labor unions is that their members can't afford to live comfortably without their "living wage." agreements. Unfortunately, that is the problem right there. And it's just not the unions. Everybody wants the 72-inch flat screen TV, everybody wants two SUVs, everybody wants a $350,000 house. The ceiling was raised too high and it had to come crashing down as was evident by the housing crash and millions of foreclosures because greedy ignorant people mortgaged $400,000 houses making $40,000 a year. Kids today expect to graduate college and land the $50,000 with no work experience, contractors want to make their entire year's salary on a few jobs, public employees don't want to pay any of their benefit or retirement costs, everybody wants to live high on the hog. Too bad it's over. The Golden Goose has stopped laying her Golden Eggs. We as Americans are spoiled rotten. We want everything today. We don't want to work for anything anymore as evident by the 40 million on Food Stamps, the millions receiving Welfare or Disability checks or the 53% of the population now receiving some form of government assistance. We have become a lazy, corpulent society. The solution is simple: Live within your means or subsist on the backs of the taxpayers. Unfortunately too many are choosing t
Nikki River
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 8:33 p.m.
Henry Ford didn't have to pay $5 a day for his labor ... unless of course he wanted to sell his cars to them. Businesses focusing on cheap labor are being short-sighted. Unemployed Americans can't buy their products, and neither can the 25-cent-an-hour Chinese. Go ahead, build your fancy cars filled with cheap foreign parts. They'll look good on the top of the scrap heap next year.
leaguebus
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 8:05 p.m.
I spent 4 summers working at the Ford Rouge plant during college and I can say I was never overpaid. The place was hot and most jobs were boring but the workers showed up every day because the pay was good. So your solution is to let everyone starve because their jobs went to China? There would be plenty of money to take care of these people if we had not given the top 25% of incomes, three times the wealth of the lower 75%. What is wrong with the US today is the attitude that people without jobs or with jobs that pay $10 per hour are lazy and should buck up and solve this problem themselves. The Golden Goose has had it neck slit by the Supply Siders and their desire to make the rich richer and solve all the worlds problems before our own. We have spent $1T in Iraq helping them. We are spending $2B a day fighting in Afghanistan but still the TeaBaggers want taxes cut and a balanced budget. Bill Clinton balanced the budget after raising taxes and at the same time created more jobs in 8 years than any of the tax cut presidents before or after. Its time to open ones eyes and see reality.
shanedr
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 11:40 a.m.
If the middle class is limited to those with a college education it will be a very small group. An effective middle class must include not only those with a college education but those of the skilled trades "and" small business men and women. There are many accomplished individuals that are not well suited for a college education but have the skills necessary to easily be classified as middle class.
Michael Cohen
Thu, Jun 23, 2011 : 10:54 a.m.
To make progress on this problem will take some careful discussion. "Higher education" is not just one thing. For example, junior colleges perform quite different functions from Research Universities like MSU and UM. Our Research Universities produce students who can compete for jobs on the national – even international – labor markets. If Michigan's economy is lagging behind, they will leave the state. Rather than spending public money to keep general tuition low, an answer might be to create state-supported college loans that are forgiven through state income tax when graduates stay on to work in Michigan, Many other countries do this. A correctly designed forgivable loan program could keep our best students here and even draw talented students – and their potential employers – from outside Michigan into the state.