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Accountability free trade & free markets too much government

Who Creates Jobs?

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There’s way too much pressure on politicians to “do something.” Most of the things they can do are bad. “Do something” too easily translates to “do anything,” and odds are that “anything” will end up as catastrophe.

There’s a division of labor in doing things: Investors, capitalists, and entrepreneurs create businesses which employ people; legislators and government executives have the more humble task of setting up and refining the groundrules, allowing others to do the great works.

Politicians don’t create jobs as such.

Few politicians understands this. But Gary Johnson, former two-term governor of New Mexico, does — and he’s running for the Republican presidential nomination.

“The fact is,” he said in the recent debate, “I can unequivocally say that I did not create a single job while I was governor.” He went on to say how proud he was of this fact. New Mexico underwent an “11.6 percent job growth” rate during his two terms. All he did was get government out of the way of businesses.

Now, I understand: The “politician as jobs creator” talk is sometimes just a way to focus attention on getting policy right. National Review Online called Johnson “the best job creator” of all the candidates. The august journal didn’t mean much by it, other than note the statistic.

But too often politicians decide they can create jobs by taking money from all of us in taxes and investing it in private companies or new government programs. Those politicians aren’t creating jobs for us, but doing a job on us.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

7 replies on “Who Creates Jobs?”

According to the Whitehouse, for the money spent and the jobs created, each of the jobs that Presbo created cost the US taxpayer $284,000. And lasted only until the government supplied money ran out.
The jobs that occured under the eye of Governor Johnson didn’t cost us a thing. And are still there.
He must be a hater.

Right on Paul. Politicians do not create jobs. Neither do tax cuts. Which is supposedly connected to growing the economy because business can hire more people. If this logic is true then the wealthiest people should be creating jobs. That is not true either. They just watch their bank accounts grow. Cut their taxes and their bank accounts will just grow faster. Jobs are created because there is a need for someone to physically do something. That’s all.

[…] Who creates jobs? Paul Jacob of Citizens in Charge Foundation knows that it’s not government that creates jobs. It’s people that do. And, there is one presidential candidate who knows this too. This candidate said during a recent debate “The fact is I can unequivocally say that I did not create a single job while I was governor.” Read more at Who Creates Jobs? […]

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