“When the Senate takes up a jobs bill later this month or early in February, the debate will center on whether it really will create jobs and be worth plunging the government tens of billions of dollars further into debt.
Republicans scoff at the “Jobs for Main Street Act” title that House Democrats put on their $174 billion package last month. They refer to it as “son of the stimulus,” the $787 billion economic recovery plan of nearly a year ago that they say was ineffective at producing jobs.”
How does the old saying go? “Repeating the same behavior over and over and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity”, or something like that?
Well, that’s exactly what this is. Are there any sane people left in the world? Does anybody remember when they told us that the stimulus package would stop unemployment at eight percent? That didn’t happen, did it? Our government has turned into a remake of the scene from the Steve Martin classic “The Jerk”. You know, the part where he says, “I have this remote control and that’s all I need!”
However, instead of a remote control, our government says that all it needs is just another $174 billion in borrowed/printed money.
Somebody stop the world and let those of us with math skills off, please.
It is beyond obvious at this point that capitalism has been completely scrapped in favor of cracking open Monopoly boxes and handing out money. Anybody with even a rudimentary education in economics and history will tell you that this is completely counterproductive to our free market system, and that it is in fact our free market system that has made America the most powerful and prosperous nation in the history of mankind.
Jobs cannot be created by handing out money arbitrarily. For an economy to remain strong, money most circulate, and that circulation must be spurred by demand. The best way to create demand is by cutting taxes, which would by definition necessitate a cut in government spending. (Agreed, this is a pipe dream, but it is what should happen.)
When you strip away all of the econo-speak, our system is fairly simple. It basically works like this:
Essentially, when money is given back to consumers, “consumption” increases. When consumption increases, demand increases. When demand increases, businesses must expand to meet the demand, and when businesses expand, that means jobs. Real jobs. The kind of jobs that the market sustains on its own, and not the kind of overpriced, phony “shovel ready” job that only lasts a few weeks because there is no demand for what they supposedly produce, and consequently disappear because the artificially created money runs out.
It’s a proven system, and it has worked every single time it’s tried. Yet there are some in positions of power who seem convinced that a government-controlled economy is better, despite all of the historical evidence to the contrary.
Perhaps we should coin a new phrase:
You can send politicians to Washington, but you can’t make them think.
Popularity: 37% [?]
