Thursday, July 29, 2010

Jobs Saved?

The President of the United States can't create or really even save jobs. At best a president can get out of the way of innovative, hard-working people to allow them to create and save jobs. I get my news online and I noticed that when the President made an appearance on The View, he was asked only one challenging question, and that was from the only conservative on the program and it was about the whole White House language of "jobs saved." There is no measurable means of determining how many jobs were saved.

If you have 8% unemployment and that goes up to 10%, it doesn't sound like you saved any jobs. What they're saying is that "it could have been worse." We don't know that. However, let's say that more people could have lost their jobs than who did. Saving a job is not the same thing as creating a job and it isn't even necessarily really saving a job. Money wasn't even redistributed. It was just printed. It was wealth that we didn't even produce. But the money was sent to states to keep government workers employed. Once that money runs out, where is that money going to come from? Actual jobs must be created for enough revenue to be raised to pay for those government positions.

So yes, more debt was produced and people got to keep their jobs for a little longer. But jobs paid for with borrowed money aren't going to last without borrowing more money. They've been "saved," but somebody is going to have to pay now for the debt created to prolong someone's employment. We didn't really save a job as much as we put off the inevitable. Paying someone's salary with borrowed money is nothing more than another economic bubble.

By the way, the same economic bubble still exists in the housing market. For over a year, people bought houses to take advantage of $8,000 tax credits also paid for with borrowed money. It produced an artificially maintained housing market as people sought to get their tax credit. The banks also have not released all of their foreclosures for fear of what the glut of houses on the market would do to home prices. The banks would lose a tremendous amount of equity on their repossessed homes. They have artificially kept the prices of homes up by both holding on to the properties and by attempting to deal with delinquent mortgage payments. The bubble created by both the factor of the tax credits and the manipulation of the banks is bound to pop. One could say that the combination of these two aspects has "saved jobs," i. e. again just put off the inevitable.

So there we have our "jobs saved." I would contend that a job hasn't been saved if a job wasn't created. You and your neighbor could hire each other to dig a ditch in each others' yard. You dig his and he pays you. He digs yours and you pay back to him the money he paid you. See how two new jobs were created. Of course, not really. That is akin to what's happening with "jobs saved" in this country and according to this White House.

7 comments:

  1. I think the current administration has been a wonderful instance of how God uses all things for good in the lives of believers.

    Never before have I been so keenly aware that my citizenship is in heaven and that accomplishments that are significant in this age only are really pointless.

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  2. David,

    I agree. That's a good personal reaction.

    However, I also don't assume that people don't know this basic information. It is immoral and needs to be pointed out in a representative form of govt.

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  3. Gary Webb5:11 AM

    The sins of our President and of Congress - their lying, stealing, and treason (in deliberately trying to dismantle our Constitution which they swore to uphold) - all need to be pointed out as we preach Scripture and make application. American people need to know the Scriptural basis for government or the Scriptural condemnation of government (Socialism, Communism, etc.). John the Baptist preached against the sin of Herod and Herodias. Of course, he also paid for it with his life.

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  4. From the late, great Ronald Reagan.

    A recession is when your neighbor loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job. A recovery is when Jimmy Carter loses his job...or in this case Obama.

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  5. The graph or curve showing the exact scenario of all the jobs in the country. We can easily interpret all the information from there.

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  6. "There is no measurable means of determining how many jobs were saved." You're absolutely correct.

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  7. Kent et al, I meant to imply nothing beyond how the Lord has used this. I don't think WIT is in danger of confusing the Gospel with Republicanism.

    I will say though, I see a dearth of leadership on that side as well (Paul Ryan [WI] and Jim Jordan [OH] being notable exceptions) along with and exaltation of, if not opportunism, then at least shallow intellect (Palin).

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