When the price of something goes up, the quantity demanded of it goes down. When government raises the price of creating jobs, investing and living in Michigan, we get less of those things.

There's plenty of evidence to back this common-sense truth. A March 2010 Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis study on the relationship between jobs and economic freedom concluded that states with "minimal government interference" have higher employment growth than their more intrusive counterparts.

Combine that with Michigan's performance in an economic freedom index produced by the Pacific Research Institute, and it becomes clear why we're in trouble: Michigan's freedom rank plummeted from 27th place in 1999 to 43rd in 2008.

Read more: http://www.freep.com/article/20101023/BUSINESS06/10230391/LaFaive-Give-businesses-freedom-to-create-jobs