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page is not yet completed. It will be an essay on job creation
myths in economic development through government spending programs. |
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particular, be careful about phrases such as "saving jobs". This
is often a euphemism for not really being able to demonstrate that there
was an impact. It asserts that there was value become something
bad didn't happen. It remains an article of faith, however, that
the risk was real - and that jobs would indeed have disappeared and not
been replaced by something more productive with similar resources.
By this logic, we should still be supporting the
horse-drawn carriage and trolley manufacturers. At one time they
were probably very good jobs, providing useful public transportation.
We got over it. "Saving jobs" can too easily be a euphemism for
defending a status quo which free markets no longer sustain.
It can be the enemy of progress, and a deceptive path
to a prolonged decline at rising social costs. We should be very
skeptical about government officials "picking winners" by spending money
in the name of "job creation" or "saving jobs". There may be a
competitive case to be made for it, but it should not simply be a matter
of faith that such investments are always good ones. Government
can waste a lot of money very quickly on poor choices, as demonstrated
by public support for many unsuccessful ventures. |
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most cases, you will also search in vain for reliable statistics about
"jobs destroyed" by the policies of federal, state, or local government
leaders, or reliable performance benchmarks to compare the effectiveness
of those programs against competing regions. The more typical
analysis uses statistics to show that they are all above average, and
all worthy of more funding forever.. |
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