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Headline in the news today (11/22/2008): "Obama economic plan aims for 2.5M new jobs by 2011"
Generally, I always say the president doesn't have a lot to do with job creation, except by one means. But given that Obama was the candidate of hope and change, maybe he has a new idea, so I took a look at the article. How does Husein Obama propose to do this? Does he propose new jobs with real productivity that create products that people need and can choose to buy? Nope.
- President-elect Barack Obama promoted an economic plan Saturday he said would create 2.5 million jobs by rebuilding roads and bridges and modernizing schools while developing alternative energy sources and more efficient cars.
Same old method as democrats always propose: Grow government and government projects. Grow the taxes confiscated to support them. Use the government gun to take away money from your paycheck that could buy what you want, and give it to someone in a government job because their need, and politicians desire to redistribute your wealth, are more important than your wants. Create hundreds of thousands of new nationalized jobs filled with unionized workers standing around beside roads watching a few do all the work, build bigger school bureacracies and increase their power to teach democrat ideals to our children (while vigorously defending the rights of mothers to terminate their unborn children), create demand for billions in additional taxes and ongoing bureacracies since we can't let those people go once the roads and bridges are done. His proposal is for more permanent government works and taxes to support them. Nothing new at all.
It's funny that politicians are wringing their hands about how the gas prices have dropped from $4 a gallon to under $2. A news report yesterday was complaining "people are abandoning public transit and carpools, and beginning to drive in their own cars again." Aw, darn it, the people are getting more freedom, rather than giving the politicians more power by becoming reliant on giant money losing public transit systems.
- "These aren't just steps to pull ourselves out of this immediate crisis. These are the long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long," Obama said in the weekly Democratic radio address.
Translation: These jobs aren't just for us. I want to make sure your grandchildren have lots more taxes to pay too.
- The goal is to get it quickly through Congress, with help from both parties
The democrat majority in congress will be very helpful to ram this through without dissent.
- Obama noted the growing evidence the coutnry is "facing an economic crisis of historic proportions"
Yeah, how about the ever increasing taxes on my paycheck to pay for bailing out a mortgage industry, when I don't own a home, prop up bubble level home prices, when I can't afford a downpayment at these ridiculous levels, and bailouts to auto makers who build expensive cars that I've never been able to afford without taking on uncomfortable levels of debt. The last thing I need is more taxes to pay for someone else's jobs in industries that whose products I can't afford.
- People "are lying awake at night wondering if next week's paycheck will cover next month's bills," if their jobs will remain, if their retirement savings will disappear, he added.
I worry about how much more of my paycheck is going to disappear into taxes, and whether the politicians will be successful in proping up ridiculously high property prices (and increased property taxes) that keep me frozen out of the housing market, and locked into paying ridiculous rents. I worry about whether artificially low interest rates will tempt my landlord into refinancing the property using an ARM load that he won't be able to afford after the rate adjusts, and end up in foreclosure resulting in my being kicked out of my home despite my faithfully paying my exhorbitant rent every month.
- "We'll put people back to work rebuilding our crumbling roads and bridges, modernizing schools that are failing our children, and building wind farms and solar panels," Obama said.
Perhaps there really are lots more nowheres that need bridges built to them. Do you think you'll end up with any more local roads that you can actually use to speed up your commute. No way, because:
- Your local politicians want to force you into their public transit systems
- Politicians will increase the bridge tolls and other taxes on your to support those system whether or not they are actually useful and well connected and well run.
- The democrat eco-freaks will fight having any more land devoted to roads
- Road construction for highways used to be a million dollars a mile, but is now a billion dollar a mile adventure. All of the government mandates increasing the cost of road construction have made it so that we can no longer afford a new deal style program.
- Any new lanes will be declared to be carpool lanes so you can sit in traffic and feel guilty that you aren't combining your unique schedule with someone else..... Here's an idea to give thousands of people some extra spending money: Carpool lane occupants for hire
However, building wind farms and solar panels is kinda cool though, since the utilities are government sponsored monopolies. Keeping a wind and solar farm running probably isn't nearly as expensive. But, eventhough techie projects might be our favorite thing, lets not lose site of the ball..... The fundamental thing to understand about government programs is this: If it makes economic sense to produce wind and solar polar, investors will put up their capital willingly to invest in businesses to create more wind and solar power, which will be sold on the open market, and some of the profits used to pay back the capitalists who invested their capital. Oh wait, can't have that, where's the government control? Where's the increase in taxes and an ability to lavish largess on a dependent group in exchange for a chunk of their union salaries to support the next re-election campaign?
Oh, and modernizing the schools: It's not their modernization that is keeping them behind. Everything we have around us was created by people who went through schools that were filled with "old" technology. In the olden days they learned what it took to achieve success, which was personal effort and excellence. Now-a-days educators are more concerned about self-esteem irregardless of achievement, and teaching the kids to celebrate diversities that damage the core fabric of society. What is really needed is to remove deadweight bureacrats and entrenched unionized teachers from the schools. With $10K minimum going into the top of the school pyramid per student, and teachers getting maybe $2K out the bottom per student, that filter is what needs to be fixed.
Note that Obama's plans involve creating very expensive government jobs with very expensive benefits attached. I.e. just the kind of jobs that would kill a company in private industry. But hey, they are the government, we don't get a choice about whether we want to pay for their "product".
Want to see a striking example of the difference between competitive pressure on private enterprise, and what happens in government jobs? Measure the average walking speed of people working at a McDonalds, vs. the speed of workers behind the counter in your local Department of Motor Vehicles, local Social Security office, local INS office, or state employed road construction crew, etc. It is a joke, everyone who works in private industry laughs at the lack of comparison, everyone in a government job scowls at me for suggesting the comparison. One would think the carpet in government cubicles came from the La Brea tar pits, and the floor behind the counter at a McDonalds was an ice skating rink. Even the security guards at the government offices seem to move in slow motion. But thats the difference between entrenched entitlement and innovative achievement.
Oh, and one last thing: Do you really believe the government unemployment numbers? There are so many games that can be played with how they are calculated. Watch the shell game very carefully. Many of those "new" jobs can be created by careful solely with a tweaking of how the number is calculated.
Notice that his goal should be written "Obama economy plans to claim 2.5M new jobs created in time for next election." Keep your eye on the shell, it's only about re-election, it's not about us. Any politician attempting to cut government could be accused of killing jobs. Can't have that.... Or how about, "Obama plans to guarantee reelection by creating millions of new unionized jobs that confiscate workers pay to donate to his reelection campaign." There are many angles to his plan. His campaign seems to say, "Damn the torpedoes, damn the increased taxes, full unionized employment ahead, we've got a powerbase to consolidate and a reelection to plan for."