Energy Sector Jobs

A graphic floating around Facebook called "The Truth About Job Creation" (see below) makes it seem as if the government should be investing in renewable energy and other projects favored by "green" groups. The graphic shows that investing $1 million leads to only 5 jobs in the natural gas sector, but 14 in solar, and so on. Such "demonstrations" are completely irrelevant though for economic health. Government support of "green" projects raises energy prices and actually makes the average worker poorer. The fundamental problem with the graphic is it assumes that mere job creation is the goal. But in reality, the purpose of having jobs is to transform resources into goods and services that consumers value. Because the graphic offers no information on how much these workers produce in various sectors, it is largely an irrelevant bit of trivia.