Artificial Jobs vs. Honest Productivity
In his latest column Ron Paul points out the folly of big government trying to create artificial taxpayer-funded make-do jobs just for the sake of it, instead of encouraging honest and true long-term prosperity by simply getting out of the way. — tmartin
Stimulating Our Way to Rock Bottom
by Ron Paul
With attention turning to the next big economic stimulus package, questions are still swirling about our economic troubles. How did we get here? How do we get out? As usual, Washington has all the wrong answers. According to many politicians, we got here by not spending enough, not consuming enough, and not regulating enough. Now government, like some mythical white knight, is going to ride in to save the day by blanketing the economy with dollars, hiring an army of new bureaucrats, creating make-work jobs, and sending everyone some form of a bailout check. The debate seems to focus on whether this will cost enough to save the economy, or if this is just a “down payment” with much more government spending to come. Talk like that would be comical, if the results weren’t going to be so tragic.
The results will be worsening economic woes until we learn our lesson. But instead Congress is behaving like drug addicts who must hit rock bottom before they are ready to face reality. They are playing foolish games with the economy now because they are thinking only of political expedience. This talk of job creation is a perfect example.
Contrary to the belief of many, the goal of the economy is not job creation. Jobs can be a sign of a healthy economy, as a high energy level can be a sign of a healthy body. But just as unhealthy substances can artificially give the addict that burst of energy that has nothing to do with health, artificially created jobs just exacerbate our problems. The goal of a healthy economy is productivity. Jobs are a positive outcome of that. A “job” could be to dig a hole one day, and fill it back up the next, or perhaps the equivalent at a desk. This does no one any good. But the value in that paycheck ultimately has to come from taxing someone productive. Some think this round-robin type of economic model is supposed to get us somewhere.
Politicians and bureaucrats have already done their fair share to ensure that jobs in the private sector are prohibitively complicated and expensive to create. They are now shocked that the economy is shedding jobs, and want to simply create hundreds of thousands of jobs to make up for the job losses, through another so-called economic stimulus package. The private sector must be permitted to do that, but instead they are massively burdened with taxes and webs of red tape and regulation. Washington’s bandaids will only prolong this agony. The Austrian school of economics teaches that only a free market economy, unencumbered by onerous government controls, creates long-term prosperity. Politicians, however, tend to be notoriously short-sighted.
I am left with these questions – who is going to be left standing to tax in the private sector to pay for all these public sector make-work jobs? Is Washington really to be considered some sort of savior for creating unproductive jobs in place of the productive jobs they eliminated?
We are at an economic dead-end and those in power are in denial. The truth is our economic problems are due to loose monetary policy, central economic planning, and the parasitic expenses of government. Unless we assess these problems honestly, we unfortunately have a long way to go until, like the junkie, we hit rock bottom.
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Throughout history, exploration has been a powerful strategic tool. Both Spain and Portugal turned themselves into superpowers in the 15th and 16th century through overseas expansion. By contrast, China, which at the time had a technological edge over the Iberian states, chose not to explore and was put on the defensive. Ultimately, as we all know, China’s retrograde policies pushed the Middle Kingdom into a half-millennium-long tailspin.
Further, we might consider the enormous advantages that England reaped by colonizing a large portion of the world. Not only did Britain’s empire generate wealth for the homeland, albeit often cruelly, but it also inspired technological development at home. And in the world wars of the 20th century, Britain’s colonies, past and present, gave the mother country the “strategic depth” it needed for victory.
For their part, the Chinese seem to have absorbed these geostrategic lessons. They are determined now to be big players in space, as a matter of national grand strategy, independent of economic cycles. – Fox News Blog
Libertarian philosophy has languished for a very long time because it is defined by what it is against rather than by what it is for.
“We need banks to start lending and confidence in the market to successfully put money into our economy”
Sean, you need to stay in school. I stopped reading once I saw that.
Our country produces little or nothing and consumes vast quantities of materials on debt. That’s not an economic model that will ever work.
Common sense.
What even most economists don’t understand is that interest rates actually deplete money away from the economy because interest fees weren’t created in the first place. Interest rates on a house can be two or three times as much as the house is worth.. This can be expressed in a simple formula. p=principle, I=interest.. p/(p+I) will fulfil their loan contract and I/(P+I) will foreclosed.
Someone said that im’ too one sided, so I decided to read more about austrian economics.. I agree with all of it, but I don’t think it applies in our economy right now. They say that more money doesn’t equal inflation until it surpasses demand. Well we have such a high trade deficit, that we don’t have any more money, so the Fed has to print more money and the government has to create more jobs so we can have a higher demand without a shortage of cash. Austrain Economics really doesn’t factor in trade deficits, so it really is irrelevent.
Also, I really think that Keynesian Economics and Austrian economics are alike and transparent. Even Ron paul believes that our economic crisis happened from results of the Federal Reserve, but Hayek disagrees and says that economic fault cannot come from centralized planning. So I’m not sure if this one sided argument really has two sides.
Wow, thanks for the infotainment.
It is a joy to watch you chase your own tail.
on ROn paul’s other page he was wondering what the Central bankers were planning in switzerland today and telling us that this is the main importance… Well Ron paul is right, the central bankers were trying to come up with a reasonable GDP for the year 2009. This is the whole purpose of the Federal Reserve… To evaluate and determine how much growth we can handle to natural resources.. I’m pretty sure ROn paul is stuck with the whole austrian economics and doesn’t understand supply and demand. That is the whole reason we have inflation and federal reserve intervention. There is always limit to supply, but demand can easily get out of control.. Because ron doesn’t understand the rolls of the central bankers, he thinks their only roll is to cause harm. I’m not even sure if Ron paul knows that the federal reserve members are yearly elected officials and the final decisions of the fed work on a voting system.
I think his point is that you can’t prove what they are discussing. The only thing you know about their conversations is what they tell you.
what do you think they are talking about?
What they say isn’t the point. The issue with their meetings is that we can’t know what they say unless they tell us and that is not the way the government is supposed to work.
Personally, I couldn’t tell you one way or another whether they are creating the new world order or playing a long game of bingo. The issue is that we, the American people, should know what a private group of individuals that control our money are talking about with other nations. The congress is either too scared or too complacent to require such a disclosure.
You seem to overlook the fact that our constitution declares that only congress and the treasury has the power to create and regulate currency. why keep paying a bunch of the richest people in the world to manage our nation’s financial affairs? (aside from being unconstitutional?)
Canada had artificial help for years when our dollar was low (worth around 0.64$US). When our dollar started to go up (all the way to 1.05-1.10$US), manufacturing jobs went down the drain. Now we have to learn to increase productivity instead of relying on a drowning dollar. The US might go through something similar if people rely on economic stimulus alone.
Your right, an economic stimulus alone wont put enough money into all the area’s of the economy.. Usually money is put in and spread out through bank loans.. Money or debt is distributed by banks. We need banks to start lending and confidence in the market to successfully put money into our economy. A stimulus package alone wont apply the money needed, but it will build a lacking infrastructure per GDP and create much needed jobs.
Geez, Sean, did you memorize that propaganda or is that your very own flavor of BS. What ever happened to saving your money and opening a business without going to a bank? Is that just to 20th century for the “new economy” or something. Here’s a though, maybe people need to pay off their debts, stop buying needless cars,electronics, and gadgets, and pay cash for everything they do need.
nobody can just save up enough money to open up a business. Did you know it cost a million dollars to open up your own mcdonalds. Its good to take loans because thats how money is put into our economy..
I did. I saved for years and eventually had enough money to open my own business that is sucessfull and thrives in even the worst economy. It was hard. I had to do without a lot of fancy things like the latest iPods or whatever, but I did it.
It is absolute BS to say that people can’t open a business without a loan. You are clearly young and/or ignorant of the real world.
By the way, coincidently, I own two McDonald’s. Neither of which cost a million dollars.
and about the regulation… i hate government intervention, but who knows how many times our economy was saved because of regulation and who can really testify saying that they can feel government intervention in departments you’ve never even heard of before. We don’t need to worry if there is or isn’t regulation, we need to worry about which area’s are being regulated and what their purpose really is.
We’re going to have financial problems untill we fix the oil deficit..
I’m pretty sure investing in clean renewable energy isnt just a very productive and smart thing for the government to do, it will also help save our country when the oil runs out, considering all the Saudi’s are telling us the era of cheap fossil fuel is over due to the finite supply. Our country will not get renewable energy started if it doesn’t come from some sort of authority. We need someone to get up and start doing this because 99.9% of us are doing the same thing we do every day and don’t have the capability to change an entire industry for the future good of our economy and planet. We all want it done; Its’ been talked about for decades. The rest of the world has been trying to warn us but we just ignore them because we think we’re smarter and better than everyone else. Wouldn’t it be great if we actually saw our tax dollars go towards saving the world, then we can be partisipants and we can say that we got it done from the bottom up. With our tax dollars, we entrusted the government to manage our green grass root movement. I would be proud to see my tax dollars go towards renewable energy instead of who knows what.
How did you get there?It was the debt trap set by your own central banks.It was poor education and lack of awareness.It was too any people working long hours and too tired to learn.It was also a lack of discipline,breakdown of the family unit.Too much Hollywood BS.Too many do gooders.Too much Govt.Too many lawyers/litigation.
We in Australia have a similar malaise.Decay has been the order of the day even amidst stupendous technological advance.
We can turn it around if people are made aware of the causes.The internet is the only real mechanism of free speech.You only need 13% share in media outlet like CNN to vet what topics they can cover.
Presently our Govt along with China is trying to censor the internet under the guise of stopping paedophilla and porn.Paedopliles now don’t need the net since people can have direct computer links.This sickness has been in the Churches and families for centuries,well before the net.
How do we turn it around?Be honest and face the reality just like Ron,otherwise we will all perish.
China, Russia, India, and Japan are all in the middle of their plans to send their people to the Moon. NASA is spreading many false rumors about why these countries are suddenly all so hot to go to the Moon. Mostly they center around “national presige” or the false hope what these countries are really interested in is being just like us and proving that to the world. If you look at the data that’s available, that’s a big lie. The reason these countries are going to the Moon is to stake out its mineral resouces.
According to what our astronauts found when they went to the Moon in the 70s, it is made of pretty much the same stuff as the Earth. Imagine you were the first person to walk the Earth. What would you find? Gold, and copper just laying around in their pure state. Rich veins of platinum and platinum group metal ores, sometimes mixed with iron, chromium, and nickle in the remains of iron metorites. Diamonds that fell to Earth in carbonacious meteorites.
You want a public works program that would put Americans into high tech jobs with a future? You want a public works program that returns resouces that can be made into profitable enterprises? It’s right there in the night sky. China is going. Russia is going. India is going. Should we just wave and wish them luck? Depending on the chance you perceive that they’ll find exploitable mineral resouces on the Moon, do you want to take that chance that the USA will be for the first time a nation that goes to others for the resources we need to fuel our industries? Is that the nation you want to hand down to your children?
It seems to me like there is a middle ground. There is a public works program that Democrats, Republicans, and Libertarians could support. It seems to me like we need to go back to the Moon, and the race is already on. We can choose to compete or choose to be last, but it is on all the same.
Public Works: Tax Shell Game
Our government does not produce anything it gets all its money from the taxes it collects or through the printing press which is inflation…a hidden tax. Public works financed through Government no matter what it is has to be paid for through taxes. It’s one thing to create money out of thin air but to create money out of thin air and then create imaginary jobs through the use of that money and call that economic progress is baffling. It is similar to asking the bank if you can borrow thousands of dollars because you are broke and out of work to remodel your kitchen and claiming that remodeling your kitchen is work and the money you borrowed is a paycheck. Now if you borrowed money to buy capital which produced something that is entirely different but borrowing money to keep busy is just ridiculous.
The question really is what country is dumb enough to lend us any money to finance the stimulus because we are broke? Especially since we are broke and borrowing money to remodel our kitchen! No country is that stupid. Why would they invest in such a venture? Countries are going to say no and realize that our economy is phony along with any promise to pay back debt.
Unfortunately for us hitting rock bottom means the collapse of the dollar. Henry Hazlitt would be turning over in his grave watching these fallacies being committed over and over again.
Here’s what we need to do. Every country needs to detonate all their nuclear bombs at once.
LOL!
you rule!
Trust me, once either China, Russia, India or Japan find a way to profit from the moon, we will be right behind them to the point where we will fight to take control.
Until then, we are not going to empty our piggy bank to find something to put into it. That doesn’t make much sense.
Yeah, it’s always best to be the last one to a gold rush. Forward thinking like that is what got us where we are today.
hahaha there isn’t even way we could extract gold from the moon. That sounds like a wild goose chase to me. We didn’t get where we were today from roaming space looking for shiny metals.
haha i had to look this one up… gold and diamonds come from molten rock, water and pressure, which the moon all lacks. I think we can let china, india, russia and japan go to the moon and not worry about missing out on anything.
Gold comes from water and pressure? Right. And you looked that one up? How sure of that are you? Sure enough to relegate your country to 4th rate status for the next century? What do you care, you’ll have got yours, right? Did you happen to look up where platinum comes from?
why would you argue if you don’t even know what your talking about?.. china is going to the moon for helium 3 which is used for nuclear power. We are trying to get away from nuclear power and create clean RENEWABLE energy.. Thats how we are going going to try to achieve the number one status for the next century.
Platinum metal also strongly catalyzes the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen gas
Gold is formed as the result of molten rock, called magma,
being intruded into solid rock. As the magma cools and
solidifies, water and other volatile substances separate
out from the magma under high pressure. The high pressure
of hot water and steam force open fissures in the
surrounding solid rock, through which these hydrothermal
solutions travel. When the hydrothermal solutions cool,
deposition of material occurs, especially quartz in the
form of quartz veins.
Because gold has a relatively low melting temperature, it
is sometimes carried by these hydrothermal solutions through
the fissures in the rock and solidifies inside the quartz
veins. Thus, the place to look for gold is usually in
quartz veins near the intrusion of a magma body. One example
is the so-called Mother Lode of the Sierra Nevada in
California. If these quartz veins are eroded, the gold
may be found in streams and rivers; this explains why
the 49-ers of the last century were able to pan for gold
in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.
If the Earth and the Moon are made of the same stuff, which we found was true as a result of the Apollo Moon landing, then the only part of the process you describe that couldn’t occur on the Moon is the part where the gold washes into streams.
As for China’s goals in space, perhaps you should listen to what they themselves have to say:
A chief scientist with China’s Moon exploration programme, Ouyang Ziyuan, said that the country was planning to launch its first mission to the Moon in 2010. He reportedly told the Beijing Morning Post: “Our long-term goal is to set up a base on the Moon and mine its riches for the benefit of humanity.” – BBC News
And as for India’s purposes, there’s this article which provides some clues:
The Chandrayaan-1 is being sent on a two-year, 80-million-dollar mission to provide an in-depth map of the mineral, chemical and topographical characteristics of the moon’s surface. – Breitbart
China is reopening mines in Africa and destroying the land around them trying to extract every last bit of ore from those sites. Russia is trying to annex the sea floor below the polar ice caps because they think there’s oil under there. The rest of the world is not standing still. They are developing their industrial base. We have left ours to stagnate for decades. Industry needs resources.
Dennis Wingo has recently released an article about the exploitation of lunar resources titled Why Space? Why Now? In his article he states:
Fuel cells and hydrogen, whether derived from hydrocarbons, solar energy, or nuclear power, is the ultimate future of transportation fuel. Without reasonably priced transportation fuel it is impossible to sustain our global civilization. Fuel cells are much more fuel efficient than internal combustion engines and their exhaust is water, eliminating the perceived climate consequences of continuing to use fossil fuels. The ability to move about at will with humans and robotic systems in the inner solar system is an imperative that brings us these riches. A pretty compelling reason.
I’ll have more to say if my earlier post ever gets past the moderator.
The US is not going to be happy just policing just the earth!
We need to contaminate the rest of the universe with this disease that is humanity.
We must make the moon safe for democracy, safe from the terrorists we must Kill things, blow things up, spend $ that we don’t have!
It’s the American way!
God bless America!
You might be a disease, but I was created in the image of the God who created this universe. I was given dominion over the earth (lower case ‘e’, denoting solid ground, not uppercase ‘E’ denoting the name of a particular planet), and I take my responsibilities as a steward of God’s creation seriously.