NoaIzumiUseless Jobs?
February 20th 2009 15:33
Author and Townhall columnist Ben Shapiro joins this blog, though not by choice. His latest column goes after infrastructure.
Obama’s Stimulus Creates Useless Jobs
First of all, I have to say I admire Shapiro’s courage. Infrastructure improvement enjoys broad support, even among Republicans, so this is pretty mavericky.
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“useless jobs provide products and services that have minor impact on quality of life.”
Roads, bridges, levees, pipelines, clean water, reliable power grids, telephone networks, none of those things effect quality of life? I wonder if Ben Shapiro has ever tried going without them.
“Imagine Bill owns a fruit stand. He sells his fruit for $2 per pound. Herman sees that Bill is doing well, and decides to open a fruit stand of his own. He figures he can undercut Bill and live on less of a profit margin, so he sells his fruit at $1 per pound. Pretty soon, Herman runs Bill out of business. It’s tough for Bill. But meanwhile, customers are spending $1 less for their fruit than they were. They’re spending that extra money at Bobs clothing store, keeping Bob employed -- and Bob can now hire Bill. The bottom line is this: The power of free enterprise creates competition that raises production, lowers prices, and makes lives better for consumers and producers.”
Of course, this example says nothing about what happens in bad times, when people are buying less, of fruits, clothing, and everything else. The simple scenario assumes that the overall level of economic activity remains the same, which obviously isn’t the case now. The idea that the free market will always create jobs has been pretty well debunked. By reality.
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There’ve been a lot of Bills over the past year; so, where are the Bobs?
And on a somewhat broader note, why is Herman able to sell his fruit at lower prices? Could it be because of government spending? Better roads cut down on transport costs. Weatherization programs cut down on energy costs. If Herman is importing his fruit, more inspectors means the wait at customs is shorter, lowering the losses to fruit going bad. Rather than always being the enemy, government spending can be good for business.
“Now lets look at government jobs. Imagine Cool Hand Luke works for the government as a menial laborer. He builds roads in New York. People dont choose to pay Cool Hand Luke -- the government forces them to pay his salary. Now, certain people in New York may benefit from the new road. But they would rather have spent their cash on a new car, or a new computer, or a new business. And the people who live in California, who are also paying Cool Hand Luke, get nothing for their money.”
They’ll spend the cash on a car when the roads are falling apart? And the stimulus is nationwide, with funding for projects in every state in the Union. In any case, does Mr. Shapiro really think that if New York (or any other state) suffers economically, it won’t effect the rest of the country?
Ben Shapiro seems to believe that government is incompatible with free enterprise and economic choice. But at the polls, the voters voice their support for infrastructure by voting for the candidates that promise to support it. They pay taxes to the government, which the government then spends on the projects that people want. If the elected officials spend the money on unwanted projects, they don’t stay elected officials for very long. So, isn’t that economic choice, just through a third party that generally respects our wishes?
“That is why Americans oppose Obamas stimulus package. According to the latest Rasmussen poll, 53 percent of Americans think the stimulus will either fail to stimulate or actually hurt the economy.”
Gallup and Pew Research disagree.
Really Long Link
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And didn’t the first link of this post show that people support infrastructure? And now they’re supposedly opposed to the stimulus because it spends too much on infrastructure? Hmmmm.
Like I said, mavericky.
Obama’s Stimulus Creates Useless Jobs
First of all, I have to say I admire Shapiro’s courage. Infrastructure improvement enjoys broad support, even among Republicans, so this is pretty mavericky.
Really Long Link
“useless jobs provide products and services that have minor impact on quality of life.”
Roads, bridges, levees, pipelines, clean water, reliable power grids, telephone networks, none of those things effect quality of life? I wonder if Ben Shapiro has ever tried going without them.
“Imagine Bill owns a fruit stand. He sells his fruit for $2 per pound. Herman sees that Bill is doing well, and decides to open a fruit stand of his own. He figures he can undercut Bill and live on less of a profit margin, so he sells his fruit at $1 per pound. Pretty soon, Herman runs Bill out of business. It’s tough for Bill. But meanwhile, customers are spending $1 less for their fruit than they were. They’re spending that extra money at Bobs clothing store, keeping Bob employed -- and Bob can now hire Bill. The bottom line is this: The power of free enterprise creates competition that raises production, lowers prices, and makes lives better for consumers and producers.”
Of course, this example says nothing about what happens in bad times, when people are buying less, of fruits, clothing, and everything else. The simple scenario assumes that the overall level of economic activity remains the same, which obviously isn’t the case now. The idea that the free market will always create jobs has been pretty well debunked. By reality.
Really Long Link
There’ve been a lot of Bills over the past year; so, where are the Bobs?
And on a somewhat broader note, why is Herman able to sell his fruit at lower prices? Could it be because of government spending? Better roads cut down on transport costs. Weatherization programs cut down on energy costs. If Herman is importing his fruit, more inspectors means the wait at customs is shorter, lowering the losses to fruit going bad. Rather than always being the enemy, government spending can be good for business.
“Now lets look at government jobs. Imagine Cool Hand Luke works for the government as a menial laborer. He builds roads in New York. People dont choose to pay Cool Hand Luke -- the government forces them to pay his salary. Now, certain people in New York may benefit from the new road. But they would rather have spent their cash on a new car, or a new computer, or a new business. And the people who live in California, who are also paying Cool Hand Luke, get nothing for their money.”
They’ll spend the cash on a car when the roads are falling apart? And the stimulus is nationwide, with funding for projects in every state in the Union. In any case, does Mr. Shapiro really think that if New York (or any other state) suffers economically, it won’t effect the rest of the country?
Ben Shapiro seems to believe that government is incompatible with free enterprise and economic choice. But at the polls, the voters voice their support for infrastructure by voting for the candidates that promise to support it. They pay taxes to the government, which the government then spends on the projects that people want. If the elected officials spend the money on unwanted projects, they don’t stay elected officials for very long. So, isn’t that economic choice, just through a third party that generally respects our wishes?
“That is why Americans oppose Obamas stimulus package. According to the latest Rasmussen poll, 53 percent of Americans think the stimulus will either fail to stimulate or actually hurt the economy.”
Gallup and Pew Research disagree.
Really Long Link
Really Long Link
Really Long Link
And didn’t the first link of this post show that people support infrastructure? And now they’re supposedly opposed to the stimulus because it spends too much on infrastructure? Hmmmm.
Like I said, mavericky.
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