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A probably trite observation on ‘stimulus’ jobs.

By: Moe Lane (Diary)  |  June 6th, 2009 at 07:45 AM  | 

RESIZE: AAA

It was, nonetheless, an alarming thought to wake up to:  even if you accept the concept that the ‘stimulus’ bill that Congress saddled on us is creating jobs -

And that’s subject to debate:


…we’re shifting any jobs generated away from useful ones, like manufacturing, and towards useless ones, like government.

Have a nice morning!

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

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COMMENTS

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  • MrMosis

    I am as we type applying for the position of Director of the regional Department of Inefficiency, within a federal department that shall remain nameless (I don’t like competition.) But then, there are plenty of such jobs to go around.

  • rbdwiggins

    In fact, it may not be said often, or loud, enough: “Interference by the federal government in the US Economy destroys private sector jobs.”

    Notable findings in the May 2009 Employment Situation Summary.

    Among the unemployed, the number of job losers and persons who completed
    temporary jobs rose by 732,000 in May to 9.5 million. This group has in-
    creased by 5.8 million since the start of the recession.

    Health care employment increased by 24,000 in May, about in line with
    its average monthly job growth so far in 2009. Employment in government
    changed little in May.

    Apparently, the stimulus could not escape the Law of Unintended Consequences. The May 2009 unemployment numbers were 60% higher than projected.

  • redneck_hippie

    We don’t need no stinking stimulus:

    http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/political_commentary/commentary_by_lawrence_kudlow/recall_the_stimulus

    My favorite line: “it’s the printing presses, stupid.” We’ll probably see that one at the July 4th protests.

    Also of note, Blackhedd on newledger: “Faced with an evil choice between much higher taxes and a smaller economy, Obama is on track to give us both.”

    http://newledger.com/blogs/markets-policy/

    We being chained into an America where the incentive to innovate, invest and compete are hamstrung. Fail in your endeavor? No problem. Daddy will write you out a nice fat check.

  • Flagstaff

    They keep people off the dole, but that’s all, if they don’t do meaningful work.

    The fact is, a US government job is completely paid, 100%, by tax dollars. Even the income and payroll taxes that the worker pays are paid by your tax dollars, not by the worker, because he doesn’t get his salary until you pay your taxes, and you pay his whole salary.

    For state workers, their entire salaries are paid by state taxpayers.

    City workers; city taxpayers.

    Yes, this is somewhat simplified, but except for the useful work they do, government workers don’t help the economy any more than if their net salaries were simply paid out as welfare. And welfare isn’t necessarily permanent, whereas government jobs are almost never surrendered.

    Furthermore, we don’t want government to be a growth industry. Think about what would happen if it grows to one-fourth.

    If one-sixth of the work force is soon to be government workers, that actually means that 100% of all relevant taxes will be paid by the remaining five-sixths of us. So those numbers about what percentage of taxpayers pay what percentage of taxes actually understate the extent to which a small minority of people carry the tax burden.

    Every single aspect of the porkulus bill is counterproductive.

  • http://www.ssce.net/Web-Articles/Web-articles-indexed-authors.html#authors-l JLenardDetroit

    They just cannot grasp the most SIMPLE of mathematical equations in relation to PRODUCTIVE vs. NON-PRODUCTIVE…. Most think of the “non-Productive” aspect as those collecting Govt. Funds while completely ignoring that Govt. Workers fall into that category. It drives me crazy that even when it is explained to them, it is so far above their grasp.

    just 10 Government Workers Salaries/Benefits (lowball) = 1/2 Million
    just 100 Govt. Workers = 5,000,000 (FIVE MILLION)
    5000 (Obama bloating Govt) = 250,000,000 ( 1/4 BILLION )

    That is 1/4 Billion dollars that is NO LONGER being made in the Private Sector and would therefore produce TAXABLE INCOME to the Federal Govt., instead it is paying out that 1/4 Billion….

    1/4 Billion still fills in lots of pot-holes!

    No-one has said it better than Daniel Hannan (British MEP) – mbecker’s: What the Leader of the Republican Party should sound like! Productive vs non-Productive sectors of the Economy same here as in UK. Why CONSERVATIVES in DC don’t start making the same basic speech is inexcusable.

  • http://www.RedState.com/ETCartman Kenny Solomon
  • molybdanthan

    Imagine when there are tens of thousands of government workers, and tens of thousands more who’ve retired and still taking full pension and benefits from the taxpayer. Who’s going to bail out the private citizen when the public sector takes everything?

    I ran into a guy once who had just gotten himself a federal government job. He would not shut up about it. Like he’d just won the powerball. Well, in a very real sense, he had. The mandatory pay increases, cost of living adjustments, full medical coverage, and easy work. After all it’s not like they have to live within their means, or make a profit. Not once, not ever. Just keep printing money and making rubber stamps. And raising taxes. Money may be the root of all evil, but government is the vine.

    Where I live, we just found out city workers had finagled a deal to get “free” cell phones, “free” parking, and other such perks. “Free” in the sense that they weren’t paying for them. This while my city is in a deficit, and they were talking about mandatory furloughs for cops. How about this fellas, more cops, and fewer bureaucrats.

    But, we’re going to keep paying for government, even when it’s worse than broken, like tossing bales of money into a fire, and wondering if it was put to good use.

  • Flagstaff

    government is best that governs (and taxes and spends) least. If we were ever to get back to having a federal government that only does what it should, rather than what “everybody wants” it to do, we’d actually have the wealth available to do those “wants” individually or to prioritize them properly at a lower level of public effort, whether governmental or charitable.

    There is a reasonable simple way out of our situation.

    Reduce all federal income tax rates by 1000 basis points (down to zero), guaranteed for ten years. (‘Fund’ this with porkulus money.)

    Rescind all those promises of pie in the sky–free health care (that’s what people think they’ve been promised), free transportation (yup), free anything.

    Partially privatize Social Security.

    Eliminate/phase out all government programs that aren’t appropriate under the Constitution.

    Get rid of GM and Chrysler.

    All of this encourages productive work and reduces the drain on productivity called “taxes.” And it will never happen with our current set of politicians on both sides of the aisle.

  • molybdanthan

    Of the last 20 years, we’ve had 16 under one Democrat or another. That’s how it happened.

  • Flagstaff
  • molybdanthan