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Imagine real jobs
Last Friday came word from the Obama administration that the stimulus has created or saved nearly 650,000 jobs. David Bahnsen, a frequent contributor to WORLD Magazine, points out that most of these positions are “public sector administrative jobs hired to oversee work that no one in their right mind believes is in need of being done.” He goes on to ask:
[H]ow many people believe the private sector could create 650,000 jobs on its own, and pay them more than government secretaries get paid, and have them do something more useful than data entry related to a government job, if we cut the corporate tax rate from 35% to 25%? Or how about this: A complete and total repeal of the insidious corporate tax? Repeal of this globally stifling tax would cost $300 billion in total revenue – just 38% of the cost of the stimulus, yet would create a bare minimum of 2 million new jobs (over 3x the amount that the stimulus is said to have created). And this measure, which would cost 1/3 as much, and would create 3x the results, would do so by creating real jobs that actually add to the dignity and value of our society. Imagine that.
Read his analysis in its entirety here.
back to top14 Comments to “Imagine real jobs”
We have to ask exactly what the actual real goal of the stimulus was. It was never seen as a way to bring about the laudible goals Bahnsen listed. It’s all about getting more folks dependent on the govt. All those jobs will be SEIU flaks who will then recycle the money back into future Dem campaigns.
We’re sliding into banana republic status and we are powerless to halt it.
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Private sector jobs bring in revenue to the gov’t.
Public sector jobs take away revenue from the gov’t, with a limited return in taxes.
Do the math.
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The former are created in the free market by free citizens who are sharp enough to meet human needs that others will pay for. They create wealth and salaries for tax-paying citizens. The right tends to trust and empower the private sector.
The latter are created at the people’s expense and the salaries are a burden to the people. These jobs are also less accountable to the free market where real human needs truly must be met, or else. The left tends to trust and empower the public sector.
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the gov’ is turning communist. most of us know it. so the question is, what are we gonna do about it? we can sit around and talk all we want while our freedom slowly fades away. we talk while they act.
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There is a lack of precision even in Bahnsen’s criticism. The “created or saved” rubric is brilliant because you can never know (and therefore disprove) the claim that the law “saved” a job. Saying it “created or saved” 650,000 jobs could mean it created zero, and (allegedly) saved 650,000. Therefore, actually creating 2,000,000 jobs is possibly far more than 3x the number created by the stimulus money.
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It’s what I been sayin’ for the last 10 months! I’m glad for the confirmation, and really glad someone else is finally sayin’ it, right in front of God and everybody….
Say it loud, and say it often.
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Imagine REAL change… for the better.
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The math behind the “created/saved” jobs is your basic fuzzy math. Having worked with a number of municipalities around us trying to secure some of the stimulus money to finance real projects (for our company it is about energy efficient lighting upgrades but there are building issues, steam leaks, list goes on and on) what you do to create the “jobs created/saved” number is start with $92,000 and then create or save a job based on how much money you are asking for. So, one project we are working on is changing the lighting at one of the local fire stations that is in a very high risk neighborhood from the original lighting (installed in 1979) with lighting that is more efficient and much better for the location. So the total installed cost on this project is $110,000. Well, the $110,000 number was rejected because by the administrations math this would only create 1.25 jobs, so we had to go back and readjust the number to ask for more money so the city could hire a grant writer/sustainability person at $150,000 per year for a 3 year period. Then this person gets 2 admin people at $45,000 per year and a project manager (although the city already has 4) at $100,000 per year. All these temporary jobs are then thrown into the one project that could have been financed for $110,000 and now the city is going to receive $550,000 to fund this project so the administration can “create” 4 new jobs and then they get to count the 4 people that will actually install the fixtures from the contractor as 4 more “saved” jobs.
That is so efficient. If this were done the way it is supposed to be done, we wouldn’t worry about a bogus number that doesn’t reflect reality and more reflects a bunch of government jobs that exist to do nothing but give the administration some numbers to work with, and we would have funded this project, had fixtures ordered and installed already and the contractor would have had a job, the manufacturing plant would have had an order, an electrical distributor would have had an order and we would be moving on.
Instead we are running on our 5th month without this being financed waiting to find the right person to fill the job (has to be a minority by the way because the city’s last census showed the trend going toward majority minority population and the city still has majority employees)and it doesn’t look like this will be funded by the end of the year.
In reality very few of the 650,000 jobs created or saved are actual jobs created or saved, they are jobs that may be created or saved once the money actually starts to show up and the majority of them will be temporary government jobs (union government jobs of course).
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The president is just trying to make the american public feel better by creating more jobs. they are not necassary jobs they are just jobs for the sake of giving out jobs. My guess is that these jobs are costing taxpayers money and increasing our national debt. the government is willing to give more and more handouts as time gos on. the economy would be stronger if it was allowed to repair itself without the government steping in to try to fix it every time it hits a little bump.
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While everyone else in the country is tightening their belts, the government is spending like there’s no tomorrow. Unions and government employees are living in the lap of luxury during a recession.
If there was no so-called stimulus spending, perhaps the government and unions would have to tighten their belts. But alas no …
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What!!!??? No arguments?
So where’s the liberal contingent on this thread?
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MIM,
Everyone is busy imagining real jobs—they’re certainly hard enough to find otherwise. I’d like to see the breakdown in how many jobs were actually created, and how many saved. I’ve been away for a week, so did I overlook something, or is that information not really being presented anywhere?
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Oh come on. You don’t expect anyone to collect hard data on such a thing do you? I mean, if they’re touting bogus unemployment numbers as real (one company estimates unemployment numbers around 16%), why would they give out accurate numbers on jobs saved/created?
Much easier to make something up and blow your own horn….
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Well, I’ve never agreed with the way unemployment numbers are calculated, but I’ve never heard the %16 number…though I guess I wouldn’t be that surprised. Where did you hear that number (if you remember).
I know that records are kept of jobs created. Local agencies who are in charge of administering grant funds tally those numbers usually. But calculating the number of jobs ’saved’ can be very tricky. We would at least have some idea of the number if they release the number of jobs created, then subtract that from the total number of jobs they are touting. If they don’t release the number of jobs created, it will be a very bad sign indicating either a very very low number, or mismanaged funds possibly. Not good either way.
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That giant sucking sound is the redistribution of wealth from the private sector to the public sector.
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