There will probably be a push this week for 'more stimulus spending' as Obama's jobs plan. He will, like some other people I know, advocate for government jobs programs. I have one of those jobs, a job in which I can work circa 30 years and then get paid 80% of my salary for the rest of my life, even though I'm not working. What they're really doing is robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Government gets money in one of a few basic means. It can steal it from you, it can print it, or it can borrow it. Other than that, name any government agency that actually turns a profit. They want you to think that profit is evil. Well, the only way to pay for everything you want is to make more money, and they depend on you to do just that so they can steal it some how.
First, they can steal your money outright. This they call taking from the 'rich' and giving to 'those who deserve it'. Who they are to decide who deserves it I don't know, and I suspect much of it ends up in the pockets of their friends. When they do this, there is no net change in money. They have taken if from a business they loathe and given it to one they like. The problem with this arises when those companies never actually return on the investment and fail to generate a product. At that point, the consumer has wasted money because the promise never comes. This is also true of much NSF funding.
If that doesn't work, they can borrow it or print it. The problem is that it doesn't really increase the amount of wealth, only the ammount of currency. It's like taking a dollar out of one pocket, putting it into the other, and thinking you have doubled your money. Even if they turn a profit, they still have to pay the debt they created before there is any real return.
Besides that, the Supreme Court declared every one of FDR's programs as unconstitutional. Last night on local news, the commentator referred to this as a speech by "Candidate Obama", because it's going to be a campaign speech, just like that presented in 'Dave', appropriately vague of actual specifics and loaded with nothing but sweeping gesture promises and the like. Even though we need more roads, roads don't generate actual wealth. They are the means to it, but when was the last time a road made a robot, packaged a TV dinner, or faceted a diamond? Roads are tools. They to not actually make wealth. They're not even very good tools. At least normal tools can be used to do other things. We're talking here about putting people back to work by having one crew dig holes while another crew comes along and fills them again. No net change will result.
Obama wants people to want what he wants. He talks for compromise which really means he wants everyone to agree lock, stock and barrel with him. If there isn't gridlock in Washington, he will get everything he wants. I oppose a works program by the government for several reasons. First and foremost, it would be run by the same people who have demonstrated themselves unable to make any other idea work. When a congressional seat or the presidency changes, there are few if any changes to the bureaucracy tasked to support them because those people are difficult if not impossible to fire. Secondly, name something that government has actually built. Government does not start construction companies, oil companies, mining companies, etc. The only company it has run, the Post office, is also going bankrupt. Finally, we already have a government job creation program. During the Obama recession and the panic of 2011, government still added a hundred thousand jobs, and none of that has helped yet to turn the economy around. People do not buy roads or forms or tickets to stand in line at the DMV. They buy things, and our government is not interested in or capable of such an economic venture. I cannot and will not promise that under any ideas the country will magically get better. I have no magic beans. If you really want magical tonics, the snake oil salesmen in congress already offered you that, and the stock market responded with a major selloff. The only place miracle pills work are in works of fiction.
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