printIf you are a private-sector sucker plumping for a panoply of new government programs, consider the following: The more of them there are, the fewer of you there will be. Think zero-sum, or parasite vs. host. The first is sucking the lifeblood of the second. The larger the parasite gets, the weaker the host will grow.
[From “Life In The Oink Sector”]
Alas, STATISM AND STUPIDITY ARE INTERCHANGEABLE. Obama can “summit” (forgive this horrid “verbing” of a noun) about jobs all he likes, nothing will come of it. Because he is a dyed-in-the-wool statist, BO cannot conceive—not even with the aid of Lego or some sort of pop-up children’s model—that dolling out unemployment benefits, state aid, and government jobs programs, which all necessitate the seizure of private wealth through taxing, borrowing, and printing paper—cannot create wealth.
Here’s my simple, crude model for Obama the statist. Play with it with the First Girls. Recommend it to your friends:
Put 10 blocks in box A. Take 5 blocks out of box A and place them in box B. The owner of box A is 5 blocks poorer, the owner of box B is 5 blocks richer. Total number of blocks: still 10. Total wealth created: 0.
Come on BO, you can do it.
There is no big secret about “creating” jobs. Government can’t do it. Unless it sucks more capital and credit out of the private economy, it has only the capacity to consume wealth, not create it.
The best BO can do is take a hike; go on a 4-year vacation; walk the plank; just GET OUT OF THE WAY!
Update: Mitt Romney’s 10-point “to lift our economy” gives you an idea of the limits of Republican economic “thinking,” such that it is.
Repair and re-diretc the stimulus is one of Mitt’s recommendations. In other words, keep businesses that should go under or find a new equilibrium artificially inflated.
Individualists, proponents of the Constitution, who understand that individual liberty cannot coincide with the growth of government both at home and abroad cannot categorically accept the Republicans’ perverse notion of limited government.
Mitt also advises the president (who is beyond hope) to limit only non-military discretionary spending, and limit “new spending … to items that are critically needed and that we would have acquired in the future, such as new military equipment to support our troops abroad.”
To Republicans, the warfare state is viable; commensurate with liberty, and without the pitfalls that plague the welfare apparatus:
When Republicans and conservatives cavil about the gargantuan growth of government, they target the state’s welfare apparatus and spare its war machine. Unbeknown to these factions, the military is government. The military works like government; is financed like government, and sports many of the same inherent malignancies of government. Like government, it must be kept small.
Conservative can’t coherently preach against the evils of big government, while excluding the military mammoth.
Au contraire!
The government is great at creating Mickey Mouse sinecures for folks like Michelle O.
A $300 thousand a year job with the University of Chicago is a great gig for someone who cannot write a complete, coherent essay at university. http://isteve.blogspot.com/2008/02/michelle-obamas-thesis-unblockaded.html
This is simply too funny for words. Mitt Romney is giving economic advice to his buddy, Barack. Yes, the empty suit from Chicago is getting words of wisdom from Mr. Plastic (R-Mass)himself.
We are doomed.
How on earth would anyone “create” a meaningful job? Jobs are discovered as individuals apply their talents to create products or services that other individuals desire. The goal is to produce wealth, not just show up for 8 hours and draw a check to be exchanged for the wealth that someone else generated.
But let’s not forget that the boom/bust cycle recurrently throws people out of work in our pseudo-capitalist economy. It is no wonder then that government grows under such circumstances.
The solution is liberty which is not a luxury at all; it is a necessity for prosperity.
Excellent work, Ilana, as always.