Demorats and jobs creation

Jacob Sullum:

DESPITE all the facile comparisons between the current economic situation and the conditions that preceded the Great Depression, the most recent figures show GDP continuing to grow, with unemployment at a historically modest 6.1 percent. But if, as widely expected, Barack Obama faces a recession when he takes office in January, many Americans will expect him to deliver on his promise to "create jobs."

They probably will be disappointed, because Obama seems to view job creation not only as something the government does with taxpayers' money but as an end in itself. That's a recipe for wasteful spending that will divert resources from more productive uses and ultimately result in lower employment.

Obama says he will "transform the challenge of global climate change into an opportunity to create 5 million new green jobs," which he likens to the economic activity triggered by the personal computer.

This way of looking at climate change is a variation on the broken-window fallacy, according to which the loss caused by a smashed window is offset by the employment it gives the glazier.

By the same logic, Obama should view war, crime and hurricanes as opportunities to create jobs. All three generate economic activity, but we'd be better off if the resources spent on bombs, burglar alarms and reconstruction were available for other purposes.

Likewise, overhauling manufacturing, transportation and power production to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide may or may not be justified, but it is properly viewed as a drag on the economy. We'd be better off if we didn't have to worry about, and use resources to minimize, climate change.

Obama wants to spend $150 billion on "developing and deploying advanced energy technologies, including solar, wind and clean coal." He says this plan "will reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, decrease our dependence on foreign oil and create jobs that can't be outsourced."

Leaving aside the desirability of "energy independence" and the merits of Obama's approach to reducing carbon-dioxide emissions, the fact that he lists "jobs that can't be outsourced" as a distinct goal is troubling. Paying people to dig holes and fill them in again also creates "jobs that can't be outsourced," but that doesn't mean it's a smart investment or an appropriate use of taxpayers' money.

...

Obama and the Democrats believe in magic when it comes to jobs. In the mean time they destroy jobs and real productivity with their confiscatory taxes on the rich. The "rich" can create jobs at least two different ways. The most direct way is by hiring someone to help them create more wealth. But they can also create jobs by spending their wealth on something they want are need.

When they buy luxury goods they create jobs for auto makers or yacht builders or jewelers. When the government taxes their money to redistribute the wealth it destroys those jobs and puts the money in the hands of the less productive who have less incentive to work to earn more money. When government confiscates the property of the "rich" it makes everyone less wealthy. There is no more glaring example of that than Mugabe's Zimbabwe.