 merrie says: The theory of government-instigated job creation overlooks the loss of resources available to the productive sector of the economy. Frederic Bastiat, the great French economist is well known for many reasons, including his explanation of the "seen" and the "unseen." If the government decides to build a "Bridge to Nowhere," it is very easy to see the workers who are employed on that project. This is the "seen." But what is less obvious is that the resources to build that bridge are taken from the private sector and thus are no longer available for other uses. This is the "unseen." So-called stimulus packages have little bang for the buck. Harvard Professor Greg Mankiw filled in the blanks and calculated that each new job (assuming they actually materialize) will cost $280,000. In reality, the cost of each government job should reflect how that $280,000 would have been spent more productively in the private sector. . . .* Government workers are grossly overpaid. There are several reasons why it costs so much for the government to "create" a job, including the inherent inefficiency of the public sector. But the dominant factor is probably the excessive compensation packages for bureaucrats. According to Bureau of Economic Analysis data, the average employee for the federal government now gets paid nearly twice as much as workers in the productive sector of the economy. Notwithstanding these points, it is quite likely that politicians in Washington will pass a boondoggle-filled "stimulus" bill. While there may be a few naïve folks who think a big increase in the burden of government somehow is a recip... |
View the Top Clips from January 24, 2009
Embed This Clip In Your Site...
|
|||
|
|
||||
|
New from the makers of Clipmarks: Amplify.com - Don't just share the news...Amplify it!
|
||||
