tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8959556.post8690877722239403982..comments2024-02-21T17:30:40.448-05:00Comments on An Objectivist Individualist: Obama Jobs Bill Will Kill JobsCharles R. Anderson, Ph.D.http://www.blogger.com/profile/09610765984333672076noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8959556.post-42086297628403932202011-10-22T01:41:54.688-05:002011-10-22T01:41:54.688-05:00Of course if I could demonstrate this in great det...Of course if I could demonstrate this in great detail for all the specifics of Obama's proposed jobs bill, then I would be capable of being that mythical central planner the progressive elitists always assume is possible. I am not that and that is why we need the very tireless and clever free market to figure out the details, while no one knows most of the details.<br /><br />In a way, you have asked me the equivalent of proving that if 447 billion kilojoules of energy were dumped in many locations in the US to prove that that energy was all conserved. We can do such experiments in a closed system in a lab, but how difficult that would be in the general real world. We have to make the assumption that if it happens in the controlled lab case, then it is going to happen in general in the real world.<br /><br />There actually is one caveat to what I said. I treated the situation as one of one job or no job. I did not allow for the possibility that for every job created in Obama's bill, 20 private sector employees would simply be paid 5% less in real income. This latter effect is actually a very real and important effect. It has been happening, which is why real wages have fallen over the last several years. So for the purposes of this discussion, let us assume that 20 workers being paid 5% less is the equivalent of one lost job.<br /><br />It seems simple to me that if $235,000 is now sustaining 2.2 jobs and you take that money in taxes and convert it into 1 job, you lost 2.2 jobs for a net loss of 1.2 jobs. I do not see the magic which would make this otherwise. If someone can see it, please explain that to me. In addition, some of the jobs Obama wants to create are government jobs, which are not commonly the most productive of jobs. Others may be the equivalent of green jobs or infrastructure jobs which may take 50 years to make a return on investment for the funded projects. These are then not the most productive way to put our money to work. This is just more mal-investment to add to the many bad loans that have caused so much damage in our economy already.Charles R. Anderson, Ph.D.https://www.blogger.com/profile/09610765984333672076noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8959556.post-58075218522787817682011-10-21T23:08:53.788-05:002011-10-21T23:08:53.788-05:00I'm with you and I'm not doubting you but ...I'm with you and I'm not doubting you but can you be a little more specific about how jobs will be lost? It's probably just me but that part seemed a little vague.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com