The Problem with “Jobs”
From Barack Obama on down, politicians, economists, pundits, and journalists are obsessed with creating and saving jobs. Obama’s proposed economic stimulus plan would save or create three million to four million jobs at a cost of $775 billion.
If it’s three million jobs, that’s $260,000 a job. Four million jobs would be $194,000 each.
These calculations are overly simplistic, of course, because the government spending will provide far greater benefits than the number of jobs created, but they’re still meaningful. The numbers illustrate the absurdity of conventional policies.
Suppose that, instead of spending the money to create jobs, we provide every American with a basic income, Citizen Dividends. Enough for food and shelter, say $1,000 a month, but just enough, so there are still lots of incentives to work and earn more. People who are unemployed will have some income while they find or create their own jobs.
Everyone who’s unemployed will have some income. The fundamental flaws and failures with efforts to create jobs are that many people are left out. Government spending helps only some people, in some places, some of the time. It’s somewhat random, somewhat arbitrary — regardless of the specific policies that seek to create the jobs. While Democrats and Republicans debate the relative merit and logic of their preferred approached — tax cuts, extended unemployment benefits, infrastructure spending, buying up bad mortgages, bailing out banks or auto manufacturers, investing in health care, and so on — both parties ignore the deeper questions.
We’re in a recession, just about everyone says. But there’s an old quip that a recession is when your neighbor loses his job, while a depression is when you lose your job. This is a depression for at least 11 million Americans, and that number grew by 564,000 in the month of December. Conventional policies always leave some people behind, unemployed, depressed.
Basic income would be universal and guaranteed. It will benefit everyone, including those who cannot work or do not work for any reason, and they are, typically, the ones who most need assistance but don’t get it with any type of jobs program.
Steven Shafarman
Tags: economic growth, jobs
January 18th, 2009 at 4:29 pm
This makes a lot of sense to me. Thank you.
I wish I had more money to donate, and I’ll be happy to help spread the word.