Two differing visions of Michigan’s future were recently presented in a newspaper article about the woes of the automotive industry. One person had a confident forecast that the domestic car manufacturers would emerge from their current travails (albeit on a smaller scale and scope) and our fair state would remain a key and vital player in this world-wide industry.

The other had a less optimistic outlook, not necessarily about the automakers and their suppliers, rather about our state’s role. To paraphrase the prediction, “In the future Michigan will be considered a nice place to live and vacation, a place where agriculture and tourism are the main income producers.”

We already have strong tourism and agricultural components, so that implies a greatly reduced economic engine. To use an appropriate metaphor, we’ll be downsizing from a muscle-bound Corvette to an Escort.

In discussing this with an educator, a knowledgeable one I might add, his inclination was towards the latter prediction. A saving grace he agreed, when I brought it up, was the presence of two internationally-renowned universities-- the University of Michigan and Michigan State University-- that might make us (or allow us to remain) a center of research and innovation.

Gov. Granholm is touting the idea that we can continue to be a leader in cutting-edge automotive research and technology, building on the foundation and resources the state already possesses. Michigan State University has been a leader for many decades in agricultural experimentation, the U of M is a mover and shaker in medical and related studies, and the state is home to a major pharmaceutical firm.

But none of that, even if expanded from its present levels, can equal the number of jobs, the amount of income, the comfortable standard of living, and all the positive economic rippling effects created by producing a sizable number of the nation’s vehicles.

My own admittedly layman’s guess is that Michigan’s future will be a modified version of those two extremes, namely that there’ll be some auto manufacturing capacity, but nothing like our heyday. With that in mind, we need to focus on building our reputation as a center for various kinds of research and innovation; a place of new technology, new techniques, and new jobs. And we need to re-emphasize the importance of agriculture and tourism, as well as other economic activities, and support them. Diversity is a key strategy. An entrepreneurial attitude.

And how to we make that happen? Well, what it boils down to (no great surprise) is turning out well-educated and talented young men and women from our schools and colleges, re-training our older workers with new skills, and encouraging both the creation and retention of businesses and jobs that allow our skilled and talented workers to remain in Michigan.