This article originally appeared in The Detroit News March 25, 2025.

Michigan faces a crisis that demands immediate government attention. Just scan some headlines — paying special attention to the opinion pages — and you will get the message loud and clear: We have a crisis on our hands. Many, in fact.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer formed a commission to address Michigan’s population crisis because the state ranks 49th for growth. Our state also has an aging population, with one in five people 65 or older.

Incongruously, considering the population crisis, Michigan has a housing crisis, with a shortage of available units.

A federal funding freeze could jeopardize the state’s fight against climate change, says the Groundwork Center.

The biodiversity crisis concerns some, who say we’re losing forest and wetlands. A funding crisis “threatens to undermine” our public transportation system. The Michigan Corrections Organization says we have a prison staffing crisis.

Experts talk about Michigan’s mental health crisis. Students have mental health challenges. So do their parents. So do the teachers. So do construction workers. We suffer from loneliness and isolation.

The arts are not immune; Michigan museums face funding cuts, and the music festival scene expects a downturn.

When lake levels are high, it’s a crisis. But don’t forget the crisis when lake levels fall.

The animal kingdom is not untouched. Whitefish in the Great Lakes are declining — a crisis — while whitetail deer are overpopulated — also a crisis. Egg prices are soaring. Michigan is considering fee increases for hunting and fishing to avert a DNR funding crisis.

We have geographically specific crises up north, like copper mining pollution or the lack of security at the northern border or ambulance services that are stretched thin.

And then there are the kids. The kids are not alright. They can’t read. They are vaping. They are on their phones too much. There aren’t enough child services lawyers or social workers or foster families or childcare workers.

Every single situation I just named has been described, by some advocate or expert, as a crisis. Let’s be clear: These are important issues that deserve serious solutions. I am not dismissing them.

But we should not call it a “crisis” every time we don’t get a hoped-for policy outcome. For one thing, crisis fatigue can deplete urgency. It becomes harder to rally public support. If everything is a crisis, is anything?

On the opposite extreme, when something is deemed a crisis, people are prone to excuse government overreaches that they otherwise would not tolerate. Rahm Emanuel, who served as former President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, famously said, “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste. And what I mean by that [is] it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.”

Rushing a solution can create new problems, so prudent lawmakers will ask questions. Who is affected by the problem? Who benefits from the solution? When scarce resources are involved, how does this challenge compare to others we might tackle? What are the tradeoffs of this solution?

I wonder if we need an agreement on what constitutes an actual crisis. Perhaps it’s a problem that easily galvanizes action from political leaders in both parties. Or a problem that is so pervasive that most people are aware of it. Under those definitions, we would probably point to the wave of fentanyl overdose deaths, the coronavirus pandemic or lead contamination in Flint as true crises.

Michigan faces real challenges. My advice to advocates: Recognize that policymakers are juggling hundreds of issues. You can help them if you dial down the rhetoric. State your case with precision, clarity and passion.

Permission to reprint this blog post in whole or in part is hereby granted, provided that the author (or authors) and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy are properly cited.