"Government can't create jobs." Republicans are both right and wrong with this statement. It's an interesting situation in which, the only way that it might be right is if the Republicans are the ones thinking things through.... but only to a point.
"Government can't create jobs." Let's walk through the logic that gets us there. Government creates jobs ALL THE TIME... all you have to do is walk into any state legislature, any city hall, any school, go to any street repair, any public bus or train... the list goes on. Government jobs are all around us an impact us in so many ways that the statement seems ridiculous at first.... it always has to me. I think many of those that use it don't understand it and just think of it as the base statement against using government jobs to help the economy because they don't like big government.
O.k., where's the truth in the statement then, if government creates jobs all the time? Well, it comes from going back to where the money for those jobs comes from: taxes. To a conservative, this means a lot. It means we can't count those jobs because ... well.... it's hard for me to articulate because I don't believe it. Essentially.... imagine what would happen if government jobs were all there were... we'd all be getting paid from the same pool of money that we were all paying into.... or something.
Let's go a step beyond that. What makes a job a job? There are a few reasons why I strongly believe that government jobs are jobs.... for one thing, people are working and getting paid... that, to me, is a job. But that's the simplistic view that we started with. Let's go further. When the economy isn't going so well, government has a responsibility to keep things going and to spend more than it's taking in through taxes. A lot of hay has been made in the last 8 years about how when families lose their income they have to reduce their spending and therefore government should be the same way. What those who proclaim this don't understand is that government is a different type of entity from a family or a corporation. A government has the ability to be in debt perpetually because the rate is so low. It has the spending power to keep cash flowing, even in bad times. Government can give people jobs when corporations are forced to downsize because it's nowhere near a corporations responsibility to ensure the proper running of a country's economy (corporate responsibilities are to their shareholders and making a profit). So, what does a forward thinking government do when times are bad? Keep the flow of cash going into the economy so that people employed by the government keep spending money, which keeps other people employed, which means those other people can keep spending money, which keeps other people employed, which... you get the idea. Keep the economy from exponentially shutting down and you stand a chance. Shut down on government jobs and the reversal of a downward spiral is difficult and the improvement of an economy, once the downward spiral is stopped, is equally difficult. Once the economy is on good standing, you start paying off government debt and setting aside some money to offset small downturns.
So how does all this work into the idea that jobs coming from taxes aren't really economically benefitting jobs? Well, let's consider that all jobs are created from people giving an entity money for services and/or products and that entity creating a job to provide those services and/or products. Where does a corporation get the money to pay their employees? Where does the government get the money to pay theirs? In both cases, it's from people. Government does create jobs. Government, in fact, has a responsibility to create and maintain jobs when other entities are cutting them. Sure, a government can't maintain jobs for a prolonged period of time in the absence of other entities providing jobs, but that's the case for any single entity. Imagine, if you will, that Ford Motors was the only company left, would they be able to maintain jobs? Of course not. So we need a mix of many industries, whether they be corporate or government.... and each industry can create jobs.
Government does create jobs. Don't let anybody tell you otherwise... and if they do, ask them what people do with all that free time in China and North Korea. Sure these countries have a lot to improve upon, but they definitively have jobs....
Government does create jobs.
No comments:
Post a Comment