Job Creation?

[dougskiles]

Politicians love to talk about creating jobs - to the point that it is making me sick.  Every excuse seems to begin with "well we did that to create jobs..."

The only way I see that happening is by increasing the number of government employees.

They like to claim that infrastructure projects create jobs, but I'm guessing that most of the people working on those projects already had jobs.  Maybe a few people at the bottom of the rung get a temporary job from the project.

I've always thought that every other job is created by the businesses who are responsible for finding opportunities and making payroll.

But I will admit I have a pretty narrow view of the world.  So others out there please enlighten me.

How do politicians create jobs?  And how do we know for sure it was because of something they did?

[Dog Walker]

Amen, Doug!  Yeah, they pull out their magic wands, sprinkle a little pixie dust around and jobs come out of the ground.

No local politician or state level politician has the slightest capability of creating jobs in the face of macro economic forces.

Any politician who says otherwise is pandering to our anxieties.

Scott says he is going to create jobs by abolishing thousands of jobs in state agencies.  Makes lots of sense doesn't it.

Construction jobs did not disappear from Florida because of regulations or agencies and if all of the protections and agencies vanished overnight those construction jobs will not come back.  Developers are not building now because their is no demand for houses and stores.  There are WAY more houses out there than there are people who can by them and nothing Lord Vol....er Governor Scott can do will bring back the construction industry.

When you hear a politician say that they can create jobs, put your hands on your wallet and run!

[thelakelander]

Speaking of job creation, there is an article in today's Orlando Sentinel about road construction creating 10,000 jobs down there.

Road work supports 10,000 jobs

Few Central Florida motorists enjoy paying tolls, but all those quarters and credit card debits are putting a lot of people to work.

Nearly 5,000 construction or other closely related jobs were created or saved last year because of work done on the 105-mile toll-road system run by the Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority, according to a study done for the agency by the University of South Florida.

The report also says the road work indirectly supported another 5,000 jobs of people hired as waitresses or store clerks or in other forms of employment because of the money paid by the authority and spent by contractors and their workers.

All told, agency officials said, $415 million worth of improvements and additions were made to State Roads 408, 429, 414, 417 and 528, each of which requires tolls and portions of which are owned by the authority. The overall economic impact on the region, the report said, was $800 million.

full article: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/os-cfb-cover-road-jobs-20110220,0,1356747.story

[Captain Zissou]

That's like the HSR creating 70,000 jobs.  Were they really going to get 70,000 people who were previously unemployed, but very skilled at construction??  I agree that job 'creation' is an over used and probably incorrect term.  Maybe, creating job opportunities would be a more accurate label.

[JeffreyS]

They could enforce trade agreements as President Obama has vowed to do.  They could reinstate reasonable tariffs that have gone from an average of 20% pre Regan to less than 2% now.(Thank You Wal-Mart). I like the the fair tax with a little more progressive line on the Prebate. They could pass a law that government contracts could only be given to Multi National or Foreign corporations if no suitable Strictly U.S. corporation could meet the need.  The best thing the Fed could do is support local municipalities supporting small business.(Governments like the big businesses who make big headlines).
Most of the effective things the government could do to attract jobs would be inflationary but if you put people to work it would more than cover it.

A little protectionism goes a long way. That is why the Camry you may buy is one of the most American cars you can chose in terms of the total parts and labor used.

[dougskiles]

If 5,000 people worked on the project and they directly supported another 5,000 jobs - doesn't that seem like a pretty high ratio?  That means they spent almost their entire salaries supporting the labor efforts of others.  None of their income went to cover material costs, food, gas, interest, etc.

What is really disappointing to me is how our major media sources don't call BS on these claims.

[mtraininjax]

Don't forget the 143,000 with the expansion of the ports, from the Florida Chamber of Commerce.

[dougskiles]

^Any statistical backup for the 143,000 figure?  Or is it more of the logic used by the Orlando Orange County Expressway Authority?

[cityimrov]

Jobs are easy to create.  Remember this story attributed to Freedman (not sure if this is true)

Prof. Friedman visited China in the early 1960s and was taken by a government official to see a public works project. Chinese workers were building a canal. Friedman was struck by seeing everyone digging the canal with shovels. Friedman asked the official, "why no heavy earth-moving equipment?" The official said, "oh, this is a jobs program." So Friedman then says to the official, "then why don't you just give them spoons instead of shovels to create even more jobs?"

If we have the government hire every unemployed person at the lowest pay and benefits possible, we just solved the job crisis!  There are several projects we could get done by having people use their bare hands.  That would create millions of jobs.  

[cityimrov]

Jobs are easy to create.  Remember this story attributed to Freedman (not sure if this is true)

Prof. Friedman visited China in the early 1960s and was taken by a government official to see a public works project. Chinese workers were building a canal. Friedman was struck by seeing everyone digging the canal with shovels. Friedman asked the official, "why no heavy earth-moving equipment?" The official said, "oh, this is a jobs program." So Friedman then says to the official, "then why don't you just give them spoons instead of shovels to create even more jobs?"

If we have the government hire every unemployed person at the lowest pay and benefits possible, we just solved the job crisis!  There are several projects we could get done by having people use their bare hands.  That would create millions of jobs.  

Friedman is an ass btw.  Have you ever heard him speak or 'debate' on the subject of economics?

No clue about the guy but this particular quote does make sense in a way.  Politicians promise jobs.  They never said anything about it being "good" jobs.  

Usually when they say "jobs" everyone cheers like Pavlov's dogs.  They don't even need to say "high paying", just "jobs" for everyone to cheer! 

The jobs I want here are more higher paying jobs like science, engineering, marketing, and finance rather than adding more low skilled, low paying call center jobs.