Opinion editor's note: Star Tribune Opinion publishes a mix of national and local commentaries online and in print each day. (To contribute, click here.) This article is a response to Star Tribune Opinion's June 4 call for submissions on the question: "Where does Minnesota go from here?" Read the full collection of responses here.
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How does Minnesota's economy grow? Three ingredients are critical: innovators, entrepreneurs and workers. The innovator creates new products or services, the entrepreneur turns innovations into business plans and the workers make those plans reality. Whether the process is done by one person or 100, all three ingredients are required. All three depend on people. We are our economic engine. No exceptions.
Every successful Minnesota business has these three ingredients. Pick one. Any one: Target, Medtronic, Marvin Windows, Mayo Clinic. You name it. Their essence, planning and success is built on people.
That's the rub. Minnesota is critically short on people, especially those folks necessary to create and build a business.
What do we do? Short of waiting about 18 years for children born today to become part of our economic engine, our only option is to grow migration to Minnesota by people of economic engine age.
There are two kinds of migration: domestic and international. Minnesota is a net loser for the former and a net gainer for the latter.
A significant share of our children leave the state for school or work, never to return, except to visit grandma and grandpa. Meanwhile, children raised elsewhere don't choose to be Minnesotans often enough to make up for our kids' exodus.